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The church year, like the seasons of the sun follow a cycle that is repeated each year: Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, Ordinary Time and then it begins again. Each church season puts us into a different frame of mind, that hopefully helps each of us wind our way closer to our life's goal - heaven.
Doing the same season around the world, throughout the Christian church is refreshing and reminds us all that our religion is like a contact sport - it's about community and working, praying singing and being together.
Advent is the period of yearning for Christ. We recall a time before Jesus, a time of anticipation, of expectation, of renewal. St John the Baptist and his call to repentance is a featured figure of this season, as is his aunt, Mary. She is important to Catholics (she is also the patron saint of the United States) as the Immaculate Conception, and her response to the angel Gabriel's annunciation is a model for how we should respond to God's call.
The Church year begins on the First Sunday of Advent which is invariably four Sundays before Christmas, December 25.
Christmas begins on Christmas Eve, despite the best efforts of our retail industry. In Church, we sing Christmas carols starting Christmas Eve, and continue for the next three Sundays which are especially holy Sundays - Holy Family, Epiphany and The Baptism of the Lord, which we hear in the Gospel of is when Jesus began his public ministry with an encounter with John the Baptist. Some weeks, because of when December 25 falls during the week, this will seem like a particularly short season.
The world's most beautiful music is Christmas music. Every recording artist worth their salt have released a Christmas album, CD, DVD or track. Of course, since there is so much beautiful music available, musicians often struggle to select fresh, but traditional songs for Christmas-time worship services.
Ordinary Time is the longest 'season' of the Church year. I put it in parentheses because it's all the other Sundays and weeks of the year not Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter. The Gospel readings typically tell of Jesus' many miracles, parables and ordinary people's encounters with God. The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time is the Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord (end of the Christmas season). Ordinary Time continues until Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.
Lent is the 40 day period prior to Triduum and Easter. It's a time of fasting, abstinence and simpler celebrations. A Lenten tradition for many Christians is to 'give up' something during the season. The goal is to develop a hunger for Christ in much the same way that we might hunger for coffee or soft drinks if we chose to suffer a coffee fast or a soft drink fast. Lenten music is usually minor-keyed, not particularly triumphal and somewhat subdued.
Easter time is why Jesus was born - to do something never done before - rise from the dead. We celebrate the Easter season for 50 days. Easter concludes with Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire on the Apostles.
Ordinary Time continues for the rest of the Church year until we begin anew with the Advent season.
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