24. Liturgical Year & Sunday School

24. Lineamenta on The Liturgical Year and Sunday School

THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND SUNDAY SCHOOL

The Holy Mother Church unfolds the whole mystery of Christ throughout the course of the year and celebrates His saving work by recalling it on certain days in a church calendar called the Liturgical Year. She keeps memory of the Lord from His incarnation and birth until his resurrection and ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of His hope-full return (Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], 102). Every week, on the day which the Church calls the Lord’s Day, it keeps the memory of the Lord’s resurrection that she also celebrates once in the year in the most solemn feast of Easter. The unfolding of the Paschal Mystery of the Lord every Sunday in a week is made in a three-year cycle of A, B and C in the Liturgical Calendar in order to have a spread of the reading of most of the books of the Bible or Sacred Scriptures. The weekdays have a two-year cycle of I and II to allow the faithful to meditate on most of the text of the Sacred Scriptures so that by hearing the word of God and taking part in the Eucharist through the week they “may call to mind the passion, the resurrection, and the glorification of the Lord Jesus, and may thank God who ‘has begotten us again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto a living hope’ (1 Peter 1:3)” (SC, 106). The Church mandates that “The Lord’s Day, on which the paschal mystery is celebrated, is by apostolic tradition to be observed in the universal Church as the primary holiday of obligation” (Canon 1246). On these days and other holidays of obligation, “the faithful are obliged to assist at Mass. They are also to abstain from such work or business that would inhibit the worship to be given to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day” (Canon 1247). This is to allow the faithful to immerse into the depth of the salvific action of Christ through the liturgical celebrations spread out through different Seasons: Advent and Christmas Season, Lent and Holy Week and Easter Season and the Sundays of the Ordinary Year. Of great importance to the local Church of our Diocese of San Carlos is the celebration of the fiesta that for the parishes and the basic ecclesial communities represents an added occasion to honor the patron saint and to thank God on this occasion. Arguably, the most popular one are the fiesta celebrations in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus and after her follows the celebration of other saints like St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Isidore, St. Joseph, the apostles and other saints. The different celebrations through the Liturgical Year is an opportune time for the Total Catechesis Program in parishes and basic ecclesial communities to teach the faithful, from the children to the adults, the doctrines of our faith. Catechesis can be family-based, community-based (in basic ecclesial communities), school-based and parish-based. Community-based and parish-based catechesis can be in form of a “Sunday School” that uses the class-room method or it can be an evangelization program that uses the existing mass media in order to reach out to most of the faithful in our diocese. The catechesis that goes with the fiesta and other celebrations can be done in a form of a novena or any other format appropriate for the local church and its cultural environment. What ever program and activities of evangelization done in relation to the celebrations throughout the Liturgical Year should lead to a deeper understanding of God and His saving actions, of Christian truths and values and of the meaning of the feasts in the context of our present social reality.

Questions for small group discussions:
1. How should we spend and/or celebrate our Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days of obligation?
2. Are fiestas and other celebrations in our parish and basic ecclesial communities throughout the Liturgical Year an occasion for catechesis and Christian formation? Why?
3. How can we make our novenas and other devotional activities in our parish and basic ecclesial communities meaningful and evangelizing?
4. What can we do so that our celebrations throughout the Liturgical Year can deepen the spirituality and commitment of our lay faithful in our parish and basic ecclesial communities?