The Liturgical Cycle
Last Sunday, the Solemnity of Pentecost brought to a close The Paschal Season. Lasting ninety days plus, this season began on Ash Wednesday, with the preparatory rites of Lent; it climaxed in the renewal of Baptismal Promises at the Easter Vigil and concluded celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Birthday of the Church at Pentecost.
In the weekday cycle, last week we were in week eight and this week we begin week nine. Two further Sunday Solemnities are celebrated as Ordinary Time gets under way: This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, when we enter the mystery of Father, Son and Spirit in a particularly reflective way, and next Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord, characterised in our diocese over generations as the day of the Wellburn Procession, a solemn celebration and procession in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. In recent years, due I suppose to drastically falling numbers, this event has been scaled down to shorter celebration and procession in St. Clement's Church, Dundee.
Sometimes readers and cantors get confused as to “what Sunday it is”. I always put the title of the following Sunday underneath the date and Sunday of the day on the front page of the newsletter. Also, in the Annual Catholic Directory for the Dunkeld Diocese there is a full annual calendar of Sundays and weekdays, and the various festivals which are to be observed, so it is a handy purchase to make if you minister in the liturgy at all.
I would like to use the column on the back page of the newsletter over the next few weeks to reflect on some of the gestures and ritual movements we make in our liturgy and celebration, in the hope that you may be enriched in your celebration of our Masses together. As today is Trinity Sunday, it seems appropriate to begin as with a reflection on the Sign of the Cross
Cantors: The Tablesong will remain Are not our hearts? until next Sunday, the Body and Blood of the Lord. It will change the Sunday 13 June to the well known We hold the death of the Lord.
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