Parable and Conscience Meditation October 31

Liturgy  October 31 

Indeed, it is our special vocation, one handed down through the ages by our predecessors, to foster the liturgy of the Church in this manner (Const. 17.1).

The Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours are celebrated with the various accents of the liturgical year.  The liturgical seasons bring to life all the mysteries of the Lord which have brought about our salvation.  Advent, as the preparation for Christmas, commemorates the three comings of Christ, that is, his historical birth, his current presence in the Sacraments and his return at the end of time.  For four weeks, the Church prepares to receive Christ in his fullness.  The season of Christmas-Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of God and God’s love in the human world.  It is a festive time of rebirth and of profession of faith.  Lent is forty days of conversion and purification, inspired by the Passion and Death of Jesus.  The Church prepares for Easter, the most solemn Christian feast.  The Easter Season is six weeks of jubilation over the glorious victory of Christ in his Resurrection.  It is the time for strengthening Christian confidence in the one who has risen and ascended, who remains intercessor and, with his Father, is sender of the Spirit.  Between these seasons centered on the principal events of salvation, the Church observes Ordinary Time, various periods when the Christian community assimilates the mysteries of the Lord that it has celebrated.  This is the annual liturgical pilgrimage.

Where a chief passes, there his guest also passes.  (Shi)