The Liturgical Seasons: From Advent to Ordinary Time

The Catholic year unfolds in seasons, each with its own mood, colour, and purpose. Together they retell the story of salvation and give the spiritual life a rhythm of waiting, rejoicing, repenting, and growing. Here is a walk through the seasons of the Church's year.

Advent — Waiting

The Church's year begins not in January but on the First Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. Advent is a season of expectant waiting and preparation. It looks back to the long centuries in which Israel awaited the Messiah, and forward to Christ's coming again at the end of time. Its colour is violet, the colour of preparation, lightened to rose on the third Sunday, Gaudete ("Rejoice") Sunday, when joy begins to break through. The Advent wreath, with its four candles, marks the passing weeks.

Christmas — Rejoicing

Christmas is not a single day but a season, beginning on Christmas Eve and running until the Baptism of the Lord in early January. The Church celebrates the Incarnation — God becoming man — and the feasts clustered around it: the Holy Family, Mary the Mother of God, and the Epiphany, when Christ is revealed to the nations. The colour is white or gold, the colours of glory and joy.

Ordinary Time (first part) — Growing

After Christmas the Church enters the first stretch of Ordinary Time. The name does not mean "unimportant" — it comes from "ordinal," meaning the numbered weeks. This is the season for reflecting on the teaching and miracles of Jesus and for steady growth in discipleship. Its colour is green, the colour of hope and living things.

Lent — Repenting

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts forty days, recalling the forty days Christ spent fasting in the desert. It is a season of penance, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, a time to turn back to God and prepare for Easter. The colour is violet again, softened to rose on the fourth Sunday, Laetare Sunday, as Easter draws near. Lent strips the liturgy bare — no Alleluia, no flowers — so that the joy of Easter can burst forth all the brighter.

The Easter Triduum — The Heart of the Year

The three days from the evening of Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday are the summit of the entire liturgical year. Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper; Good Friday the Passion and death of Christ, marked in solemn red or stark simplicity; Holy Saturday keeps vigil at the tomb; and the Easter Vigil, the greatest celebration of the year, proclaims the Resurrection in light and song.

Easter — Celebrating

Easter, like Christmas, is a whole season, lasting fifty days until Pentecost. The Church rejoices in the Resurrection, the Alleluia returns, and the colour is white and gold. The season closes with the Ascension and then Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, celebrated in red for the fire of the Spirit.

Ordinary Time (second part) — Living the Gospel

After Pentecost the Church returns to Ordinary Time, the longest season, stretching through summer and autumn until the year ends. Marked again in green, it is the season of ongoing discipleship — living out the mystery of Christ in everyday life. It closes with the Solemnity of Christ the King, before Advent begins the cycle anew.

Living by the Seasons

To follow the liturgical seasons is to let the year preach. Each season turns the heart toward a different truth — hope, joy, repentance, glory, mission. Pay attention to the colours at Mass, mark the seasons at home, and let the Church's calendar carry you, year after year, through the whole life of Christ.