Going Liturgical

There is a variety of calendars that operate within a parish calendar. There is the Fiscal Year which runs from July 1st to June 30. There’s the Academic Year which runs from August to May/June. There is also the Tax Year which runs from January 1 to December 31, among others. And then there is the Liturgical Year or Church Year which runs from the First Sunday of Advent (usually December) to the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe (November). Here at SLM, we are constantly juggling events and activities among all these calendar years. But it is the Liturgical Year or the Church Year which governs the life of the Church’s worship. The New Year in the Church is in December, the beginning of the Advent Season, composed of four Sundays. This then is followed by the Christmas Season which starts at sundown on December 24 and lasts through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January. From here we spend a short time in Ordinary Time before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent ends at sundown of Holy Thursday, as we begin the Sacred Triduum which includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil begins the season of Easter which stretches for fifty days into Pentecost (usually June). After Pentecost we go into a longer period of Ordinary Time which stretches through the summer months and ends with the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe in November. Then we begin our new Liturgical Year, the circle of the liturgical life of the Church. At SLM, liturgical ministries follow the liturgical calendar—all year-round. Music Ministry (even Children’s Choir) and Children’s Liturgy of the Word (CLW) at the 9AM Mass will continue throughout the summer.