Weird Catholic Calendar

You guys have your own calendar?

We, the fellow from the adjacent carpeted cell in this vast sea of cubicles and I, had made it through the coffee line in the cafeteria and we were now on a search for a table. This was the first time he had invited me to go for coffee, and I was pleased my circle of friends may be expanding. There was a table not too far from the door which did not appear to be all that dirty, so we made our way over to it and sat down.

He started, “You know, one of the things about being in a cubicle farm is there is very little privacy. Want to or not, conversations on the phone can be easily heard.”

I responded, “I know  and I try to be aware of my tone and volume when I am on the phone, or when someone is visiting my cube.”

He said, “I know you are always quiet, but that is not what I wanted to chat with you about. I gather you are a Catholic since you mentioned “Mass” during your conversation with your wife today. I do not have a problem with Catholics, and I do not think I have spoken to one before, but during your conversation this morning, you said something which made me pause for a moment.”

“What was that?”

“You reminded your wife this coming Sunday was the last Sunday of the year, and I know it isn’t. We have all of December to go before we get to New Year’s.”

I replied, “Yes, you are right, but I was reminding her about the church calendar.”

“You guys have your own calendar?”, was his slightly amazed response. “When some of the people at my church speak despairingly of Catholics, they will say the services are all ‘bells and smells and mysteries. Since you guys have your own calendar, I gather my friends are right.

Bells, smells and hocus pocus

I responded, “In terms of the ‘bells and smells,  that comes from the incense which is used at some of our Masses and the ‘bells” are used at various points in the Mass, typically during the Consecration. When your friends talk about the ‘mysteries’ involved in the Catholic church, I think that may go back to the start of the Protestant Reformation and was a way to ‘look down ‘ on the Church.”

“For example, up until 50 or 60 years ago, the priest anywhere in the world had his back to the people, which makes sense if you consider he was leading the congregation in worship, and all of his prayers were in Latin. This remains the official language of the Church, but, as a result of what is called Vatican II, Mass is now offered in the vernacular language of the area, region, or town.”

“This combination of the priests posture and the language used was the cause of the phrase ‘hocus pocus’ being used to describe some sort of strange magic.”

His curiosity was elevated a bit, “Really, magic and ‘hocus pocus’?”

I continued, “Not really magic, but this “phrase” is used during the Consecration of the host into the Body of Christ Jesus.  In Latin, the priest would say ‘Hoc est enim corpus meim’, which translates to ‘This is my Body’, but with poor acoustics, no amplification, and his back turned to the congregation it sounded as if he was saying ‘hocus pocus’. The Protestants then used the phrase as a way to put down Catholics. With this phrase they were able to reduce the most significant aspect of our faith to a matter of humor, doubt, and so forth.”

He said, “Well, based on that amount of information, I know we will be having several conversations in the future, just so I can correct my friends, but back to this Catholic Calendar thing, what’s up with that?’

I took the last swallow of my coffee and began, “There are many seasons or blocks of time which are important in our calendar. Periods such as Advent, which is the four week period before Christmas, Lent, and others which are given several weeks of celebrations, readings, prayers due to their significance in our faith. The periods of time other than these seasons are called ‘Ordinary’. Not that there is anything ordinary about the Consecration and the Mass, but, ordinary in the sense they are not part of a specific liturgical season.”

I continued, “Much of the world uses the Catholic calendar even without realizing it.”

“Really?”

“Yes, consider Easter. You know some years Easter is early such as the end of March, and other years it feels as if the 4th of July may come before Easter does. The establishment of the date of Easter goes back to a world-wide meeting of the Church called The Council of Nicaea which was held in 325 A.D. The council set the date of Easter as the first Sunday following the paschal full moon, which falls on or after the spring equinox.

Do you have a leap year?

He asked, “Well, if Easter spills over from your calendar into the universal calendar, does it work the other way around?  That is, do you guys have a leap year?”

“No. We do not have a leap year, but the readings used, change from year to year. As you know, the four gospels are by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  What you may not know is the Mass uses 4 readings every time a Mass is celebrated.  One from the Old Testament going from the Jewish Torah through the prophets, one of the Psalms, the Gospel, and then a reading from the New Testament going from Acts to Maps.”

He looked uncertain when he repeated, “Maps?””Just checking if you were still with me. From Acts to Revelation. The Church assembles all of this material into three Sunday cycles. Cycle A used the Gospel of Matthew, B uses Mark, C is for Luke, and John is always during Lent. ”

Catholics don’t read the Bible

He said confidently, “I know the reason why it is assembled that way. It is because Catholics don’t read the Bible, and it is the only way you guys would know what it said.”

“Well”, I replied, “that would be right except for that tiny bit that isn’t.”

“What part?”

I continued, “All of it. Another amazing thing happened around the time of the Protestant Reformation, the invention of a movable type printing machine. This helped make bibles cheap and readily available. Prior to Gutenberg, each bible was printed by hand on parchment in Latin and cost nearly a peasant’s year’s pay. As a result, not too many people had them. This then became the basis, in my mind, for the Protestant belief Catholics do not read the Bible. The Church has always advocated we study Scriptures, understand them, apply them, live them, but, until Gutenberg and public education systems, very few people had the wherewithal.”

More coffee?

He asked, “Look, we have to get back to our cells in a couple of minutes. But, what I would like to ask is can we do this again? Can we get more coffee and go over a bunch of other questions I have?”

“Of course. And I can share other information sources with you such as the Bishop’s Conference, the USCCB.org, and others if we get into areas where I am less certain of my responses.”

“But, back to your original question. This Sunday is the feast of Christ the King, it is the last Sunday before the start of Advent, and the start of a new cycle within the liturgical calendar. No, it is not ‘New Year’s Eve’, but it is an interesting thought. I do not have any conflicts with meetings on Tuesday, want more coffee then?”