A Tale of Two Calendars

As I began studying and practicing many of the traditions of the Church over the past few years, it came to my surprise that not only does the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church have two liturgical calendars, but one calendar is superior to the other.

What Liturgical Year is it?

 After the Second Vatican Council an effort was made to modify the liturgical calendar in order to introduce more scripture into the Mass. The Mass up to that point consisted of a one year cycle of readings with a reading from an epistle and the gospel along with John 1:1-14 at the end of every Mass. Introduced in 1969, the new calendar consisted of a three year cycle of readings for Sundays and a two year cycle of readings for weekdays. Adding more scripture reading to the Mass is a noble cause and this is not why I consider the old calendar of the Traditional Latin Mass to be superior to the Ordinary Form of the Mass, but I do think it is a bit confusing. I am willing to bet that most people are not aware of what liturgical year it is. For those that are curious, we are currently in Year B1 (I had to look it up).

Where did all the Seasons go?

While I see the benefit of modifying the liturgical calendar to include more scripture readings, I do not understand the need to modify the seasons within the liturgical year. Within the Ordinary Form calendar there are six (or seven) liturgical seasons: Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Triduum, Easter, and Ordinary Time again. Within the Extraordinary Form calendar there are eight liturgical seasons: Advent, Christmas, Time after Epiphany, Septuagesima, Lent, Triduum, Easter, and Time after Pentecost. On the surface level the only changes seem to be the removal of Septuagesima and the changing the names of Time after Epiphany and Time after Pentecost to Ordinary time.

 Even at this surface level both of these changes negatively affect the liturgical calendar. Septuagesima (or pre-Lent) is a penitential time that starts about seventy days before Easter. These three weeks before the start of Lent are meant to prepare us to enter more deeply into the season of Lent. There seems to be no good reason to remove the season of Septuagesima from the liturgical calendar. With regards to the name change to Ordinary Time, Ordinary Time makes the seasons after Christmas and Easter seem like they are mundane and ordinary.  The problem is that there is no ordinary time after the Incarnation! Every moment of the life of Christ presented to us within the liturgical year is anything but ordinary! Having these seasons named Time after Epiphany and Time after Pentecost give these seasons a point of reference and reflection. The names of these two seasons allow us to recall back to the mysteries of the Epiphany and Pentecost and continue to reflect on them throughout the year.

Besides the name changes and removal of a season, the seasons themselves have lost some of the richness that they have within the old calendar. The season of Christmas for example has been reduced from forty days (ending on the Feast of Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd) to twelve days (ending on the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th) and the Octave of Pentecost is no longer celebrated. Moreover Ember days and Rogation days have been completely removed!

What does the Second Vatican Council Say?

As I read the Second Vatican Council's Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy in preparation for this blog post, could not find anything within the document that would lend itself to justify such drastic changes to the liturgical calendar. Moreover I found the document stating that the traditional customs and discipline of the sacred seasons were meant to be preserved or restored! I do not see how the removal and reduction of seasons preserves or restores the traditional customs and discipline of the sacred seasons. For those reasons I consider the calendar for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to be superior to the calendar for the Ordinary Form of the Mass.

The liturgical year is to be revised so that the traditional customs and discipline of the sacred seasons shall be preserved or restored to suit the conditions of modern times; their specific character is to be retained, so that they duly nourish the piety of the faithful who celebrate the mysteries of Christian redemption, and above all the paschal mystery. If certain adaptations are considered necessary on account of local conditions, they are to be made in accordance with the provisions of Art. 39 and 40. (Sacrosanctum Concilium 107)