Worship Opportunities During the Liturgical Year
The Christmas
Cycle
The word Christmas
comes from "Christ Mass." It isn't about Santa
Claus. Christmas means Christ. Separate
Advent,
Christmas and Epiphany in
your lives.
Watch and wait and prepare when its time to do that;
celebrate when it's time to do
that;
then respond in the world in word
and deed.
Remember always
that we have Christmas because God came to earth.
Advent is the
period of watching and waiting.
This is not so much a penitential time like
Lent, but
a time when, recognizing that all is not right with the
world, we watch and prepare for God's coming - a
spiritual and physical preparation. The Great Event
has not yet happened. By the way, if Jesus
Christ sent you a telegram on on the First
Sunday in Advent, usually in early December, saying he
would arrive at your house on December 25, how would you
get ready?
We offer a
ceremony of Advent Lessons and Carols every year,
typically on the First or Second Sunday of Advent.
This service originated at King's College, Cambridge, in
1918. You can read a history of the service on the
King's College
website. The tradition at St. Francis dates
back to 1975. Following the service, we gather in
the parish hall to enjoy hors d'oeuvres, desserts and
beverages, and a visit from the Bishop of Myra, St.
Nicholas.
Read even more about Advent!
Christmas begins
on the evening of the December 24 (this originates with
our Jewish roots and the old custom that
days started and
ended at sunset, hence Christmas begins with at
sunset on the 24th). The waiting and preparing are
over; the Baby is born! The liturgical color
changes from blue to white.
At Christmas-tide,
we feature a family service in the early evening on
Christmas Eve, and a Choral Eucharist in the late evening
(typically 10:00 p.m.). A service of Holy Eucharist
with Carols is offered on Christmas day.
Joyous carols are
sung in church for 12 days. But the Magi have
not yet arrived. They are still following the star.
The Magi arrive
bearing gifts on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6,
and the joy and celebration of Christ, the Light of the
World, the Word of God, moves out of the family and into
the world. Epiphany celebrates the appearing of
Christ to the gentiles of the world; the Goods News
spreads.
At Epiphany, we
enjoy a potluck supper and Epiphany cakes containing
surprises. The Magi, three wise visitors from the
East, usually come to visit. At our worship
service, we light Epiphany candles and take the light of
Christ out into the world.
Read even more about Epiphany!
- Shrove
Tuesday (Mardi Gras)
People tend to think of Shrove Tuesday as being part of Lent, but
it's not! It falls on the eve of Ash Wednesday, bringing the
Christmas cycle to a close. It's the
last day before Lent. It is named for the "shriving"
(the confessions and absolutions) traditionally performed on this
day.
St. Francis follows an
ancient tradition of gathering for fellowship and fun, and a
pancake supper. Why? Read
even more about Shrove Tuesday.
The Easter Cycle
The Easter Cycle starts on
Ash Wednesday and ends on the day of Pentecost,
and includes the Seasons of Lent, Holy Week and Easter.
The time
from Ash Wednesday until Easter is a period in
which Christians the world over prepare for and
reflect on the tremendous act of love shown in
Jesus' Christ death on the cross for the
salvation of all.
Soup
Suppers (usually on Wednesdays) followed by a
Lenten Program are a tradition at St. Francis.
The program is different every year.
Examples of past programs:
- Our
Parish Identity: Preparing for a New
Rector
- Forms
of Prayer: Finding What Works for You
- End of
Life Issues
-
Churches of San Jose
Another Lenten
tradition at St. Francis is the
World Vision Love
Loaf Program.
Read even more about Lent.
After a Lenten
discipline that includes weekly soup-suppers and an
educational program, we enter the most important time of
the church year.The rites of Holy Week are ancient and by
their nature different from the liturgical celebrations
of the rest of the church year. They are meant to
be different in order to focus attention on the mysteries
being celebrated in sacred time. If the time
between Palm Sunday and and Easter seems endless, it is
meant to. Time is suspended as we ponder and
celebrate the great mysteries of our redemption.
There are a number
of worship opportunities traditionally offered at St.
Francis. The
calendar
will have information starting in the weeks preceding
Lent every year.
-
The Sunday of the Passion: Palm
Sunday - procession into Jerusalem and the recital of
the story of the Passion. More!
-
Stations of the Cross - offered
one or more times during Holy Week.
More!
-
Tenebrae - a moving service,
which may be observed on the Eve of Holy Saturday or more
traditionally on the eve of the
Triduum, where we observe the dark descent into
hell. All lights are gradually extinguished except one
remaining light - the light of Christ which can never be dimmed.
More!
-
Maundy Thursday - foot washing
and commemoration of the Last Supper.
More!
- Gethsemane - "Will no one
watch with me?" Throughout the night, people take
turns keeping watch with Christ.
-
Good Friday - midday service
commemorating the crucifixion.
More!
-
Great Vigil of Easter - the "Queen
of Feasts" - we light the "new fire" and observe the
first celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Eve with a Choral
Eucharist. More!
Pentecost, which is Greek for "the fiftieth," is the
birthday of the church, and commemorates the gift of the
Holy Spirit, who descended upon the Apostles on the 50th
day after the Resurrection. on the ancient Jewish
festival called the "feast of weeks", or "Pentecost"
(Exodus 24:22; Deuteronomy 16:10). It is also known
as "Whitsunday" or "Whitsun" because of the white
garments worn by those who were baptized during the
Great Vigil of Easter. Pentecost
ends the Easter Cycle.
Ordinary Time
This is the long "green
season" that lasts until the church celebrates the liturgical new
year that begins with the Christmas Cycle.
It doesn't mean "commonplace" or "average". It comes from
"ordinal", which refers to numbered sequence. We number the
Sundays ... 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost,
and so forth, and we number the propers - the lectionary readings
and collect appropriate for the day, e.g. Proper 6,
Proper 7, etc.
In the early days
of the Church, many martyrs were unrecorded and therefore
not honored on Earth. On the other hand, places
like Antioch and Rome had more martyrs than there were
days in the year. So a common feast for all martyrs
was instituted, and this was the origin of the later
Feast of All Saints. At the beginning of the
5th century A.D., a feast of All Saints was observed on
Easter Friday in Syria. Ultimately, the paschal
connection was broken and lost sight of after the Roman
feast was transferred from May 13 to November 1 in 835
A.D. The commemoration of all the saints in
November is said to have originated in Ireland, spread
from there to England, and then to the continent of
Europe and Rome.
All Saints' Day is
classified in the Book of Common Prayer as a
Principal Feast falling 4th in importance, behind Easter,
Pentecost, and Christmas. It is designated as an
especially appropriate occasion for baptisms.
It is also an occasion for the reading of a necrology - a
roll call remembering the saints who have gone on
before us.
Agricultural
festivals are of great antiquity, and common to many
religious traditions. Among the Jews, the three
pilgrimage feasts, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles,
each have agricultural significance. Medieval
Christianity also developed a number of such observances,
none of which, however, are incorporated in the Book
of Common Prayer. Our own Thanksgiving Day
finds its roots in observances begun by colonists in
Massachusetts and Virginia. Nearly half of the
participants in the "first thanksgiving" in 1621 were
loyal Anglicans, called "strangers" by the leadership of
the Plymouth Colony. In 1789 the Episcopal Church
became the first American denomination to recognized
Thanksgiving Day officially and to incorporate it into
the liturgy of the church. Later,
President Abraham Lincoln established the custom of
celebrating Thanksgiving Day on the 4th Thursday of the
month of November.
The Church year
ends with the glorious celebration of Christ the King.
It is observed, Pope Pius VI said in 1925 when
establishing the feast in the Roman Catholic calendar, in
celebration of the all-embracing authority of Christ
which shall lead humanity to seek "the peace of Christ"
in "the Kingdom of Christ."
The idea of the
king brings us a host of Old and New Testament images of
Yahweh, God's Messiah, the Kingdom of God, and the line
of King David. It is natural in many ways for
all of us to immediately recognize in the image of Christ
the King the honor, reverence, splendor and glory we
attribute to the Risen Christ. And yet ...
does the image of a king really work for us at the
beginning of the 21st century? Come and see!
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