What do we mean by “Current Liturgy?”

  The Liturgy of the Church is organised in what is called a three-year cycle.  In the course of every three years we celebrate all the aspects of our faith in God.  Within every three years we listen to the full Scriptures.  And every three years we pray for all that is needed to be healthy, enthusiastic followers of Christ. 

Each year is different.

 Each of the years, within this three-year cycle, has its own progression.  It begins with Advent and Christmas.  Then there is Lent and Easter, followed by the time leading up to Pentecost, the annual renewal of the Holy Spirit taking hold of the Church.  Between Christmas and Lent, and again between Pentecost and Advent, we have what we call Ordinary Time.  These times also fall into patterns of celebration of faith, generally patterns of six or seven weeks. 

 What we have done here is to look at all those patterns of six/seven weeks individually.  In the section entitled Current Introduction we have a reflection on the main points of the present season, whatever that may be.  It is well worth reading this Introduction regularly in order to get the flavour of the present group of Sundays.  In the section entitled Current Liturgy we give some of the main thoughts from the current Sunday’s prayer and Scripture Readings and questions for your own reflection on these.  We also have Questions for Action for each week.  And in the section entitled Coming Liturgy we do the same for the following Sunday.

Each Sunday, a new beginning

Many people still think of Sunday as the end of the week – it is included in what we call the weekend.  For us as followers of Christ, Sunday is the first day of the week.  It is a new beginning in which we acknowledge all the important things of life: God; our family; our Community; ourselves and the need for leisure.  The Sunday Mass helps to bring all these together for us and then we live out that Mass, with all its implications, in the often hectic week ahead.  Our hope is that these week- by- week reflections will help you to do that.  For a fuller explanation of how to use what is here, please go to the Prayer Page and click on Living the Sunday Liturgy.