1. Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, lofty origin of all being, graciously let a ray of Thy brilliance penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and take from me the double darkness in which I have been conceived, an obscurity of both sin and ignorance. Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations, and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and with charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion; through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

2. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy When is the Liturgy Celebrated?

3. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy The liturgy is structured around Sunday—the first day of the week. Catholics are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on Sundays and other holy days of obligation. When we celebrate the liturgy, we are brought into the presence of the Paschal Mystery.

4. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 2175 Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day Sunday: We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.

5. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 1166 "By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday." The day of Christ's Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening." The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet: The Lord's day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is called the Lord's day because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If pagans call it the "day of the sun," we willingly agree, for today the light of the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his rays.

6. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Readying for the Incarnation

7. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Readying for the Incarnation Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. Thess 5:1-2

8. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Readying for the Incarnation The Incarnation is marked during Advent and Christmas. Advent: “coming” We remember the centuries of people who waited with faith and hope that God’s promise to send a Savior would one day be fulfilled. We celebrate our own anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. Christmas on December 25—Jesus is the true Son of God and Light of the World

9. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Readying for the Incarnation And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. Rev 21:2-4

10. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Apocalypticism (broadly defined): the belief that God has revealed the imminent end of the ongoing struggle between good and evil in history (a major theme in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Apocalypse: a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as its envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world (J. J. Collins). Apocalyptic eschatology: the expectation of the future characteristic of apocalyptic literature.

11. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 2. Historical Background Apocalyptic Literature 586-539 Exile. Postexilic Prophecy (Isaiah 24-27, 40-66, Haggai, Zechariah). 539-333 Persian Period in the History of Judea (333, Alexander's victory at Issus) 333-63 Judea under the Seleucids (Syria) and Ptolemies (Egypt). 175-164 Antiochus IV Epiphanius. Desecration of Temple (167). Maccabean/Hasmonean Revolt (164-152). The first major cluster of Jewish apocalyptic writings originated in the period shortly before and during the Maccabean Revolt. Book of Daniel (between 167- 164). I Enoch, chs. 1-36, “Book of the Watchers,” and chs. 72-82, “Astronomical Book.” 63 Beginning of Roman occupation. The second major cluster of Jewish apocalypses dates from the end of the first century A.D. in the wake of the destruction of the Temple and Jewish revolt (66-70 AD.). 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch, and Revelation. Destruction of Temple 70 A.D. 95-96 A.D. Book of Revelation written by John at Patmos to the seven churches of Asia Minor/Turkey on the occasion of a persecution.

12. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 3. Sources of Apocalyptic Literature in Ancient Near Eastern Literature and in Bible. Kingship of God (or the gods) is the underlying theme. Kingship was understood as an act: creating the world or restoring it from a cosmic threat. Sometimes creation was imagined as resulting from a military victory over chaos and inertia personified as Sea. The narrative of threat-battle-victory-creation of an “ordered” world is often called the “combat myth” (CM).

13. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 4. OT Adaptation of CM. Four stages of adaptation: (1)early poetry such as Exodus 15 where the founding deed in combat-myth form is liturgically remembered in order to praise the Lord for it.Exodus 15 (1)liturgical poetry (psalms) of the monarchic period: hymns praise the founding deed/CM (as in no. 1), and communal laments (e.g., Psalms 77, 89) remember the founding deed/CM in times of threat in order to ask God to renew the creation victory.

14. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 4. OT Adaptation of CM. Four stages of adaptation: (3) Exilic literature such as Isaiah 40- 66 and Zechariah 9-14 that regard the founding deed as annulled and ask God to renew it in the future (cf. Isa 51:9-11); (4) Apocalyptic literature such as Daniel 7-12 and Revelation, which assume the victory has already taken place in heaven (though not yet visible on earth); a seer brings the news of the victory to the beleaguered faithful on earth.

15. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 5. Some observations about apocalyptic Literature. Apocalyptic literature is not bizarre and obscurantist. CM was a customary ancient way of thinking about world history. Ancient Near Eastern “philosophical” thinking was normally done through narrative. Retelling one basic narrative in slightly different versions enabled ancients to reflect about the governance of the world and explain the course of history, especially the history of their own nation. They took for granted the existence and power of the gods and factored them into their reflection as our era takes for granted and reckons with a different (and less ultimate) range of forces, e.g., the power of ideas, of free trade, of energy resources.

16. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy 6. Qumran and the New Testament. Excerpt from the Qumran Rule of the Community (1QS 8.12-16) shows the community awaiting God's judgment-intervention that will renew Israel. And when these [the candidates] have a community in Israel in compliance with these arrangements they are to be segregated from within the dwelling of the men of sin to walk to the desert in order to open there His path. As it is written (Isa 40:3): “In the desert, prepare the way of...., straighten in the steppe a roadway for our God.” This is the study of the law which he commanded through the hand of Moses, in order to act in compliance with all that has been revealed from age to age, and according to what the prophets have revealed through his holy spirit. The group went to the desert because it rejected religious and governmental leadership. It interprets the situation in Exodus terms, waiting in the wilderness until the time arrives when it will take possession of the land. In the meantime, it ponders the Sinai law like Israel of old prior to the conquest of Canaan.

17. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy John’s Teachings (4 parts)/apocalyptic 1. God will come reveal himself 2. Those who did not repent would be punished or destroyed 3. Baptism is needed to protect yourself from this coming judgment (end is near) 4. Jesus is the Herald to one to come/ THE MESSIAH!!!

18. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Matthew 24-25

19. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Focusing on the Paschal Mystery The Paschal Mystery is marked during Lent and Easter Lent: “springtime” Easter Triduum: most sacred days of the Church Year—Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday

20. Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy Easter: “passover” During the season of Easter, the Church reads accounts of the Resurrection appearances of Christ Celebrates the Ascension and ends with Pentecost

21. Marking Ordinary Time Ordinal: “numbered” The liturgical periods between Easter and Advent, and Christmas and Lent The purpose is to teach Christians how to follow Jesus in everyday, ordinary life

22. Mary and the Sanctoral Cycle 11721172 "In celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church honors the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably linked with the saving work of her Son. In her the Church admires and exalts the most excellent fruit of redemption and joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image, that which she herself desires and hopes wholly to be." 44 11731173 When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual cycle, she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have suffered and have been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for God's favors."

23. Mary and the Sanctoral Cycle The feasts of saints found throughout the year on the Church’s liturgical calendar They “have suffered and have been glorified with Christ”

24. The Liturgy of the Hours The public prayer of the Church that makes holy the entire course of the day and night; also called the Divine Office