Worship and Prayer

The Church's Year

Just like the calendar year, the Church Year has seasons and festivals.

Lent

The season of Lent (from an old word meaning ‘Spring‘), covers the period of forty weekdays from Ash Wednesday until Easter Eve, when Christians commemorate Jesus’s fasting and temptations in the wilderness. Lent was originally a time of preparation for baptism and many baptisms take place at Easter nowadays. Yet it is kept by all Christians as a time of ‘Spring clean’ and growth in our life with God and our following of Jesus. Through prayer, self-examination and penitence (turning back to God) we seek to learn more of God’s love and grow closer to Christ. The colour for this season of preparation is purple.

The last two weeks of Lent are called Passiontide and second week of Passiontide is Holy Week, when Christians commemorate Jesus’ last days on earth, his entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), and all that happened at his Last Supper (Maundy Thursday), his arrest, trials, condemnation, sufferings and death on the Cross. This was all out of love for all humankind - ‘for us and for our salvation’ as the Church’s ancient Nicene Creed states. That is why the day Jesus died is called Good Friday. Then comes Holy Saturday or Easter Eve, when we think of Jesus’s body in the tomb - and the hope for our mortal bodies.

The comes Easter, the greatest festival of the whole Christian Year, the ‘Queen of Seasons’, when we celebrate Jesus’s rising from the dead to conquer death for ever and offer Eternal Life to all who believe. (Christmas is great - but Easter is even greater, for if Jesus had not risen, there would be no Christian faith at all.)

‘We are an Easter people’ as the great St Augustine said, ‘and “Alleluia!” [Praise God] is our song!’ The colour used in churches throughout the season of Easter is gold or white - for celebration! Jesus’s most wonderful love in dying and rising again for us all is the very heart of the Christian message, the Gospel, the Good News, which the Church in all the world is here to live and proclaim until the end of time.

Advent

The year starts with the season of Advent, which always begins on a Sunday - called the first Sunday of Advent - and lasts until Christmas Eve. The word Advent means ’Coming’ and this time is used partly to prepare to celebrate Jesus’ Coming - the first Christmas. The colour seen on the altar (and vestments worn) is purple.

This is a solemn time, but not a miserable one. One of the key words of Advent is ‘hope’, meaning looking forward in expectation. We look forward to celebrating again that first Coming of Jesus in Bethlehem two thousand years ago and invite Jesus into our hearts and lives now. But Advent calls on us to look forward in another way. It points us towards the end of time, when Jesus Christ will come again in glory to bring in the fullness of the kingdom of God; evil will be abolished and the whole creation redeemed and perfected in Christ.

So, as countless people are busy with physical and social preparations for Christmas, the season of Advent calls us to prepare our hearts and minds to welcome Jesus again. Advent also helps us renew our expectation of Jesus’ Final Coming at the close of history, whenever that may be. So we come to another of Advent’s great themes – ‘watchfulness’.

In Osbaldwick Church, as in many others, we use the Advent Candle Wreath - a ring with four candles round the edge with a white one in the centre. A new candle is lit each Sunday until the white one, symbolising the light of Jesus, is lit at Christmas.

Christmas itself starts on 25th December and ends, not on 6th January (the Feast of the Epiphany) but on 2nd February, the Feast of Candlemas or the Presentation of Christ. This is exactly forty days from 25th December, symbolising completeness. The colour used throughout the Christmas season is white or gold as a sign of celebration and joy. Christmas is the second most important Christian Season - the most important all being Easter.