Liturgical Calendar
“There the Lord will permit us, so far as possible, to gather together in joy and gladness
to celebrate the day of his martyrdom as a birthday,
in memory of those athletes who have gone before,
and to train and make ready those who are to come hereafter.”
(Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, A.D.156)
The church year consists of two cycles of feasts and holy days: one is dependent upon the movable date of Easter Day; the other, upon the fixed date of December 25, Christmas Day. All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The men and women commemorated in this Liturgical Calendar are not simply examples of faithfulness to inspire us: they are active in their love and prayer. They are companions in the Spirit able to support and encourage us as we seek to be faithful in our own day. In these saints we encounter not models of absolute perfection but men and women whose lives, with all their diversity of gifts and graces, were reshaped by God’s saving activity. May we take heart as we realize that, in spite of their failings and ours, we are all called to be saints, those in whom the risen Christ’s words to St. Paul come to fulfillment: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
to celebrate the day of his martyrdom as a birthday,
in memory of those athletes who have gone before,
and to train and make ready those who are to come hereafter.”
(Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, A.D.156)
The church year consists of two cycles of feasts and holy days: one is dependent upon the movable date of Easter Day; the other, upon the fixed date of December 25, Christmas Day. All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The men and women commemorated in this Liturgical Calendar are not simply examples of faithfulness to inspire us: they are active in their love and prayer. They are companions in the Spirit able to support and encourage us as we seek to be faithful in our own day. In these saints we encounter not models of absolute perfection but men and women whose lives, with all their diversity of gifts and graces, were reshaped by God’s saving activity. May we take heart as we realize that, in spite of their failings and ours, we are all called to be saints, those in whom the risen Christ’s words to St. Paul come to fulfillment: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).