St. Joseph’s Church Carrickmacross
Deus Vobiscum...May God Be With You
The different milestones in the life of Our Lord are celebrated between the First Sunday of Advent and the last Sunday of the Church’s calendar which is the feast of the Kingship of Christ. There are six seasons in the Liturgical Season:
The Liturgical colours
The Catholic Church offers guidelines as to the use of particular colours during the different celebrations of its calendar.
White symbolises purity and joy and is used during Easter and Christmas, also on certain feast days commemorating Our Lady, the Angels & Saints Red symbolises charity and is used on Palm Sunday, Good Friday & Pentecost Sunday. It is also used on the feast days of Martyrs.
Green symbolises hope and is the colour used to represent Ordinary Time.
Purple represents purification and penance. It is used during the seasons of Advent & Lent. It is also a common colour used at funerals,& on the commemoration of All Souls. For Funerals some diocese use white vestments.
The Liturgical cycles
The readings from the Lectionary follow a Sunday cycle and a weekday cycle. The Sundays follow a three year cycle, A, B, & C. The weekday cycle is a two year block and this is called Year I and Year II
During the Sunday cycle The Gospel of Matthew is read in Year A, the Gospel of Mark for year B and in year C the gospel of Luke is read. During Eastertide the gospel of John is read. In the weekday cycle Year I is read during odd number years, eg, 2007, 2009.
Year II is read in even year such as 2008. 2010.