SACRED TIME

Advent

Advent is a period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (30 November) and embracing four Sundays. The first Sunday may be as early as 27 November, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as 3 December, giving the season only twenty-one days.

Christmas

Christmas is the church's celebration of the birth of Christ. The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ. Christmas is always on December 25th. The Christmas season last 12 days until the arrival of the Magi on January 8th (this season doesn't count Sundays).

Ordinary Time

Ordinary time is the time between Easter and Advent, and the time after Christmas but before lent. The beauty of Ordinary Time is that it really is a time to grow beyond our "ordinary" selves.

Lent

During Lent, we fast for forty days (not including the Sundays) waiting for the arival of the Easter season. The word Lent originally meant, simply, the spring season. This word is easier to use than the original Latin quadragesima, meaning the "forty days".

Easter

Easter is the celebration of the Risen Christ. After dying on the cross, three days later Christ rose from the dead. Easter eggs have been a custom in this season because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent, they were brought to the table on Easter Day, coloured red to symbolize the Easter joy. Easter is more than a single day, it is a 50 day celebration until the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.