Liturgical Calendar

April 2023

• Ritual Masses are prohibited this week and weddings outside Mass are discouraged. 
• On Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the sacraments are not celebrated. 
• Funeral Masses are permitted on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week.  

• Ritual Masses including Funeral Masses are not permitted.  
• Lent ends with the beginning of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on the evening of Holy Thursday—the only Mass permitted on this day. All Masses without an assembly are forbidden. 
• The altar may be decorated with flowers (Holy Thursday, 5). 
• The oils blessed and consecrated at the Chrism Mass may be carried into the church before the celebration of the Mass (Roman Missal, Chrism Mass, no. 15). 
• The Gloria is said. While being sung, bells are rung, and when finished, they remain silent until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil (Holy Thursday, 7). 
• The celebration of the washing of feet may take place. If the priest chooses the optional foot washing, “it is for [him] to choose a small group of persons who are representative of the entire people of God— lay, ordained ministers, married, single, religious, healthy, sick, children, young people and the elderly—and not just one category or condition” (CDWDS letter of January 6, 2016). The washing of the feet should be celebrated in a way that allows for people to participate visually. After the washing of the feet, the priest returns to his chair, and from there directs the Universal Prayer. The Creed is not said (Holy Thursday, 13). 
• The renewal of priestly commitment from the Chrism Mass is not to be used at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. 
• At the Offertory, gifts for the poor may be presented in procession with the bread and wine (Holy Thursday, 14). Enough bread should be consecrated at this Mass for the liturgy of Good Friday as well. The Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I) includes special inserts. At an appropriate moment during Communion, the priest may entrust the Eucharist from the altar to a deacon, acolyte, or extraordinary minister, so that it may be brought to the sick who are to receive Holy Communion at home (Holy Thursday, 33). The Prayer after Communion is said by the priest standing at the chair (Holy Thursday, 35).
• There is no Concluding Rite with the usual greeting, blessing and dismissal.
• Following the Prayer after Communion, the Holy Eucharist is transferred in a ciborium to the place of reposition. 
• The altar of repose may be:
  • 1) outside the sanctuary in another part of the church (e.g. side altar), 
  • 2) in a chapel suitably decorated (e.g. the adoration chapel), or 
  • 3) in a place set up in such a way as to be conducing to prayer and meditation (e.g. outside of the church in a hall). The place of reposition should be simply decorated. Under no circumstances is the Blessed Sacrament to be exposed in a monstrance. In addition, under no circumstances is it permitted to reserve the Precious Blood for adoration on Holy Thursday and for distribution on Good Friday (Norms no.,30).
    
• In the order of procession for the transfer of the Blessed Sacrament to the place of reposition, a minister carrying the processional cross is followed by two others with lighted candles. A minister carrying a smoking censer precedes the priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament (Holy Thursday, 38). 
• The faithful should be encouraged to spend some time in adoration throughout the remainder of the evening. During the time of adoration, readers may proclaim biblical passages, such as the farewell discourse from the Gospel according to John, chapters 14-17. A minister may also lead Night Prayer or some other appropriate prayer. Hymns may be sung, and silence may be kept. 
• After the Mass, holy water stoups are emptied, the altar is stripped, and the sanctuary is cleared of flowers and adornments. The crosses may be covered in red or violet for Good Friday (Holy Thursday, 41). Votive candles should not be lit before images of the saints (Circular Letter no., 57).
  

• Ritual Masses, including Funeral Masses, are not permitted. 
• The Liturgy of the Hours, particularly Morning Prayer, is strongly encouraged on this day. The sacraments of Penance and the Anointing of the Sick—but no other sacraments (e.g. Matrimony)—may be celebrated on Good Friday and Holy Saturday (Good Friday, 1). 
• The Good Friday liturgy is to take place at about 3:00 p.m. or as early as noon, but not later than 9:00 p.m. The Good Friday liturgy may only be celebrated by a bishop or a priest (Good Friday, 4). 
• “The Priest and the Deacon, if a Deacon is present, wearing red vestments as for Mass, go to the altar in silence and, after making a reverence to the altar, prostrate themselves or, if appropriate, kneel and pray in silence for a while. All others kneel.” (Good Friday, 5). 
• The priest says the opening Prayer with hands outstretched, omitting the usual invitation, “Let us pray” (Good Friday, 6).
• The Passion may be proclaimed by three persons who take the parts of Christ, the Narrator, and the People. The part of Christ should be reserved to the priest. If the Passion is proclaimed by only one reader, then it should be proclaimed by a deacon or priest. 
• The Holy Land Collection is taken up before the Adoration of the Cross. 
• During the Adoration of the Cross, only one cross should be used (Good Friday, 19). An image of Jesus on the cross is not venerated; rather, the cross on which he was crucified is adored. 
• There are two forms of the Showing the Holy Cross: 
  • 1) the unveiling the cross in the sanctuary or 
  • 2) the procession with the unveiled cross through nave. The priest may adore the cross with chasuble and shoes removed. (Good Friday, 18). 
• While liturgical law does not prescribe the form or color of veils (for the veiling of images and crosses), they have traditionally been made of simple, lightweight purple cloth, without ornament. 
• If the numbers are so great that all cannot come forward, the priest, after some of the clergy and faithful have adored the cross, can stand with the cross in the center before the altar and, in a few words, invite the people to adore the Cross. He then elevates the cross higher for a brief period of time while the faithful adore it in silence (Good Friday, 19). 
• Sample Invitation for Adoration of the Holy Cross
  • Let us take a few moments to adore in silence this instrument of our salvation on which Jesus Christ demonstrated his love for us by the pouring out of his blood, bringing life to the whole world. Please kneel. 
• The Missale Romanum gives specific directions as to the music used during the adoration. The antiphons We worship you, Lord, the reproaches, the hymns Faithful Cross, or other suitable are sung.
   
  POPULAR PIETY 
• The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2002) provides the proper perspective in paragraphs 142-145. Clearly the central celebration of this day is the Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion. 
• In no way should manifestations of popular piety, either by the time or manner in which they are convoked, substitute for this solemn liturgical action. Nor should aspects of the various acts of piety be mixed with the Good Friday celebration, creating a hybrid. 
• In recent times, Passion processions, celebrations of the Stations of the Cross, and Passion Plays have become more common. In such representations, actors and spectators can be involved in a moment of faith and genuine piety. Care should be taken, however, to point out to the faithful that a Passion Play is a representation which is commemorative and they are very different from "liturgical actions" which are anamnesis, or the mysterious presence of the redemptive event of the Passion 

• The Liturgy of the Hours, particularly Morning Prayer, is strongly encouraged on this day. 
• Again, the celebration of Matrimony (including the convalidation of a marriage) is not permitted on this day.

• The Easter Vigil must begin at night, this year Easter Vigil should not begin before 7:45pm, allowing for new fire to break the darkness of night (Easter Vigil, 4). The tabernacle should be empty. 
• Please note that there is to be only one Easter Vigil: for pastoral reasons an additional Mass may be celebrated after the Mass of the Easter Vigil using the Liturgy of the Word of the Mass of the Easter Vigil and omitting the Service of Light (See “Liturgical Calendar Advisory- Los Angeles Archdiocese”) 
• The Vigil begins with the Sign of the Cross and the greeting (Easter Vigil, 9). “The paschal candle should be prepared, which for effective symbolism must be made of wax, never be artificial, be renewed each year, be only one in number, and be of sufficiently large size so that it may evoke the truth that Christ is the light of the world. It is blessed with the signs and words prescribed in the Missal…” (Paschales Solemnitatis, 82). 
• If a deacon is not present to carry the Paschal Candle in the procession, the candle is carried by another minister and not by the priest (Easter Vigil, 15). The processional cross and candles used on Sunday Mass are not to be carried in this procession (Easter Vigil, 8). The places at which the proclamation, “The Light of Christ”, are sung at the door of the Church (after which only the priest celebrant lights his candle), in the middle of the Church (after which all light their candles), and before the altar, facing the people. 
• After the deacon or other minister reaches the sanctuary and has sung “The Light of Christ” for the third time, he places the Paschal Candle next to the ambo or in the middle of the sanctuary. The lights throughout the church are turned on, but the altar candles remain unlit (Easter Vigil, 17). The illumination of the church building does not happen after the singing of the Exsultet or the proclamation of the readings.
• The Exsultet is sung by deacon, or priest, or layperson from the ambo or a lectern (Easter Vigil, 19). Before the Easter Proclamation, the priest gives his candle to one of the ministers and blesses incense as at the Gospel during Mass. If a lay cantor announces the proclamation, the words, “My dearest friends,” up to the end of the invitation are omitted, along with the greeting, “The Lord be with you” (Easter Vigil, 18-19). 

• At least three of the seven Old Testament readings should be used, including the reading from Exodus. If only three readings are used, there should be readings from both the Law and the Prophets (the two readings from Genesis plus the reading from Exodus cannot be the only Old Testament readings used). 
• The Gloria should be sung. 
• If possible, the priest intones triple Alleluia (Easter Vigil 34).
  

• Baptism can take place by immersion so long as the one that is to be baptized and the pastor are in accord. 
• If Baptism, either of adults or of infants, will take place, the priest says, “Dearly beloved, with one heart and one soul, let us by our prayers come to the aid of these our brothers and sisters in their blessed hope, so that, as they approach the font of rebirth, the almighty Father may bestow on them all his merciful help” (Easter Vigil, 40). The Litany of the Saints and the prayer of blessing follow. 
• Even if there are no candidates for Baptism, the blessing of baptismal water should take place in parishes where baptisms will occur during the year. In this case, the priest says, “Dearly beloved, let us humbly invoke upon this font the grace of God the almighty Father, that those who from it are born anew may be numbered among the children of adoption in Christ” (Easter Vigil, 40). The Litany of the Saints and the blessing of water follow. 
• If there is no baptismal font at all, such as in a monastery, convent, seminary, shrine, or other chapel where baptisms do not usually take place, the Litany of the Saints is not sung, and only a vessel of holy water is blessed (Easter Vigil 42, 54). 
• The Vigil is for the Baptism of the elect as well as infants. Previously baptized candidates are received into the full communion of the Catholic Church at other times of the calendar year. 
• The priest that baptizes adults and children of catechetical age must also administer the sacrament of confirmation (RCIA 588; Easter Vigil, 50). 
• All of the Sacraments of Initiation must be celebrated for each of the catechumens; splitting the sacraments is forbidden. 
• The celebration of Confirmation is to take place in the sanctuary as indicated the Roman Ritual according to the Rite of Confirmation. The anointing with Chrism takes places in the usual way with the thumb finger. 
• Before the priest says, “Behold the Lamb of God...”, he may make a brief remark to the neophytes on their first Communion and “about the preciousness of so great a mystery, which is the climax of initiation and the center of the Christian life” (Easter Vigil, 64) 
  

• At all Masses on Easter Sunday, the Renewal of Baptismal Promises and the accompanying Sprinkling Rite replace the Creed and the Penitential Act. In addition to following the homily, these rites may also take place as part of the introductory rites. 
• A Rite of Sprinkling appropriately replaces the Penitential Act on Sundays during the Easter Season, including Pentecost. The double Alleluia is added to the sung dismissal formulary (Easter Vigil, 69). 
• The Sequence is sung or said before the Alleluia at all Masses on Easter Sunday (GIRM no., 62). 
• The double Alleluia is added to the dismissal formulary during the octave of Easter (i.e. “Go forth, the Mass is ended, alleluia, alleluia,” or “Go in peace, alleluia, alleluia” and the response, “Thanks be to God, alleluia, alleluia.”) (Easter Vigil, 69) 
• Salubong is an Easter tradition that is celebrated by Filipino Catholics around the world. Salubong means encounter or in Spanish, “encuentro.” This is a reenactment of the Risen Jesus meeting his sorrowful Mother Mary on the road. The choirs of angels played by the children sing the song of “Regina Caeli” or in Tagalog “Reyna ng Langit” with joy and gladness singing to Mother Mary that her son is risen from the dead.
  A black veil that covers the grieving Mother is then swiped away by an angel and the bells are rung and “Alleluia” is sung. This is a great moment for the Church, especially for the families to come together in procession and prayer and experience the joyful and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
  Here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, parishes with a large population of Filipinos, celebrate this special encounter with the Risen Lord as early as 4 or 5AM. This is also the Filipino version of the “Sunrise Services,” which some parishes celebrate in the early morning of Easter Sunday.
  

• The first eight days of the Easter Season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord (Ceremonial of Bishops, 373). 
• The Gloria is to be sung or recited during the octave of Easter. 
• The Sequence is optional during the days of the octave (GIRM, 64). 
• The double Alleluia is added to the dismissal formulary during the octave of Easter (Easter Vigil, 69). 

• The celebration of Divine Mercy flows from the Church’s most important day, which is Easter Sunday, thus the faithful should be able to celebrate and recognize it as such. Devotional practices to the Divine Mercy may not take place during Mass.  
• On this Sunday of Divine Mercy, prayers for the plenary indulgence that are offered today should be led by priests after Masses.  
• For more information on Divine Mercy:
  https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/easter   

• For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, just as Christ gathered his disciples and handed them his ministry of sharing the Good News, may many more people hear and respond to the call of Christ, We pray to the Lord.
  
• Para que Cristo, que reunió a sus discípulos a su alrededor con el fin de asociarlos a su predicación evangélica, suscite también en nuestros días servidores de su Evangelio por medio de la vocación al sacerdocio y los órdenes religiosos, Roguemos al Señor.

May 2023

• Father of all humanity, do not forget what your hands have made, grant that all who work may have secure employment and a fitting standard of living, We pray to the Lord.
• Padre de toda la humanidad, te pedimos no olvides lo que tus manos han creado, concede que todos los que trabajamos mantengamos empleo seguro y un modo de vida digno, Roguemos al Señor.

• For all mothers, that they may be blessed in their love and care for their families. May the Holy Spirit continue to guide them with wisdom and love, We pray to the Lord.
• Por todas las madres, que sean bendecidas en el amor y cuidado que imparten con sus familias. Que el Espíritu Santo continue guiándolas en sabiduría y amor, Roguemos al Señor.

• Parishes are invited to celebrate the Vigil of Pentecost on Saturday, May 27. It is a prolonged celebration of Mass in the form of a Vigil, whose character is not baptismal as in the Easter Vigil, but is one of urgent prayer, after the example of the apostles and disciples, who persevered together in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as they awaited the Holy Spirit.
• The Roman Missal, Third Edition provides the order, the rubrics, the additional psalms, and the prayers after the readings (in the style of the Easter Vigil). In lieu of each responsorial psalm, a period of sacred silence may be observed.
• The Mass begins as usual, after the Kyrie, the priest sings or says the Alternative Opening Prayer for the Pentecost Vigil. Afterward, he may briefly instruct the people prior to the Liturgy of the Word. This instruction should exhort the faithful to listen attentively to the word of God, reflect on God’s great deeds for his people, and, like the Apostles and Mary, pray that the Holy Spirit will be made manifest in the world and in their Christian lives.
• The four Old Testament readings (Genesis 11:1-9, Exodus 19:3-8, 16-20b, Ezekiel 37:1-14, and Joel 3:1-5) found in the Lectionary for Mass for the Pentecost Vigil, with their responsorial psalms (Psalm 33:10-15, Daniel 3:52-56, Psalm 107:2-9, and Psalm 104:1-2a, 24 and 35c, 27-28, 29bc-30) follow. (In lieu of each responsorial psalm, a period of sacred silence may be observed.) After each psalm or period of silence, all rise and the priest sings or says a prayer. 
• (Musicians and cantors may find the first three responsorial psalms at the following places in the Lectionary:
  • Psalm 33:10-15 – volume II, no. 339,
  • Daniel 3:52-55 – volume I, no. 164A, and
  • Psalm 107:2-9 – volume III, no. 423. The fourth psalm [Ps 104] is found immediately after the fourth reading [Joel 3:1-5] in volume I, no. 62.)
• After the fourth reading, psalm, and prayer, the priest (or cantor) begins the Gloria. After the Gloria, the priest says the Opening Prayer for the Pentecost Vigil. The Epistle (Romans 8:22- 27) is then read, followed by the Alleluia and Gospel (John 7:37-39), and the Mass continues as usual.

• The Pentecost Sequence, “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” is obligatory on Pentecost Sunday and may be omitted at the Vigil. It is fitting to use the sprinkling rite on this day and the Paschal candle is to be lit at all Masses. The Paschal Candle is moved to the baptistery after the last mass or Vespers, which concludes the Easter Season.
• Sacraments of Initiation can take place at any Sunday during Easter. However, due to the nature of its celebration, Pentecost Sunday is recommended for the celebration of Confirmation for adults (when faculties by bishop have been obtained).  

• This Obligatory Memorial has its own propers found under Votive Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary, option B. “Our Lady, Mother of the Church.” 
• A set of proper (i.e., mandatory) readings has been assigned for this memorial (no. 572 A). 
• The readings for this memorial, and proper text for Liturgy of the Hours can be found here.