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AN ADVENT LESSON IN LITURGY
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It’s the First Sunday of Advent—a new liturgical year for the Church. How does our liturgical year work? The first place to consider is our Lectionary—the source of all Scripture readings for Mass and the Sacraments. Here I’m concerned only with the Mass.
We have three “cycles” of readings for Sundays—A, B, and C—and the Gospels for these cycles come from what we call the “Synoptics,” Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that order. We just finished Cycle B (based on Mark); we are now beginning Cycle C (based on Luke). These Gospels make up the overwhelming amount of the readings for what is referred to as “Ordinary Time” (more on that, later). When Sunday Gospels are apportioned out, our Lectionary tries to match them with appropriate excerpts from the Old Testament; the theme found there is reflected in the Responsorial Psalm; and the 2nd Reading comes from other parts of the New Testament and is typically unrelated except perhaps by accident. So much for “Ordinary Time.”
Advent begins what is known as the “Privileged Seasons,” including with it Christmas/Epiphany/Baptism of the Lord, and then Lent/Easter/Pentecost. Especially in Lent/Easter/Pentecost we find the bulk of the Gospel readings that come from John. The Sunday Gospels are quite a mix: we begin where we ended last weekend—the End of the World. We gradually work our way through the arrival and message of John the Baptist, and finally the Annunciation. Now let’s look at the daily readings for Advent.
There are two parts to our “season of preparation”—from the beginning through December 16; then from 17 through 24 December. The first portion’s Scripture selections work like this: the first reading (typically very strongly from Isaiah) refers in general to prophecies of the coming of the expected Messiah; the Gospel passages refer to the words and works of Jesus, leading to the question “Who is this, then?” Now we come to 17-24 December. If you add these days up, they are the eight days of the “octave” before Christmas, and so they focus particularly on the coming birth of Jesus. The Old Testament passages are very “Messiah-specific,” and the Gospels narrate the annunciations and births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Octaves are very important in the liturgical sensibility. This time is marked in other ways, as well: though I can choose any Eucharistic Prayer I want, there is one specific Preface for the earlier part of Advent, and another for the “octave days.” These are required, for additional emphasis.
Here at Our Savior we mark the change of liturgical seasons with a change in “environment”—different color banners and vestments (in bluish purple), and in music (we now switch to the “Mass of Renewal”). But we do NOT sing the Gloria yet—after all, it is the hymn of the angels (Luke 2:8-14), and so it is held up until the Christmas Masses. Meanwhile, to mark the fact that Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation, the opening hymn of our weekend Masses is always the Taizé chant “Wait For The Lord.”
This is a real race through our new season and year; I hope it can be a bit of help for you as you attend Masses (Sunday and weekday) during this wonderful time of anticipation. In the long run, the entire of our Christian hope is one of anticipation, isn’t it?
