Liturgical season
Season of Lent
The forty-day season of penitential preparation for Easter through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Liturgy
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Liturgy
Formation through the structure, symbolism, and historical continuity of the Church.
Liturgical season
The forty-day season of penitential preparation for Easter through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Solemnity
Honors all the saints in heaven, known and unknown, who together with the angels make up the Church Triumphant.
Solemnity
The oldest Marian feast of the Roman liturgy, celebrating Mary's divine motherhood (Theotokos) on the Octave Day of Christmas.
Solemnity
Proclaims the universal kingship of Christ over all creation, every nation, every person, every aspect of life.
Solemnity
The fiftieth day of Easter — the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles, the birth of the Church.
Solemnity
The Church's principal celebration of Saint Joseph, the just man entrusted with the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus, kept as a solemnity on March 19 in the midst of Lent.
Solemnity
The joint solemnity of the two great apostles and martyrs of Rome, the pillars of the Church.
Solemnity
Celebrates the announcement by the Angel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38).
Solemnity
The glorious ascension of the risen Christ into heaven forty days after Easter.
Solemnity
Celebrates the dogma defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950: that Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
Solemnity
Celebrates the gift of the Holy Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.
Solemnity
The manifestation of Christ to the nations, traditionally commemorating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus.
Solemnity
Celebrates the dogma defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854: that Mary was preserved free from original sin in the first moment of her conception.
Solemnity
Honors the central mystery of Christian faith: one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Solemnity
Adoration of the wounded Heart of Christ as the symbol and source of his redeeming love.
Solemnity
The birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord, six months before Christmas.
Solemnity
The principal feast of the Incarnation, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
Solemnity
The Solemnity of solemnities — the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Symbolism
A circle of evergreens holding four candles, one lit for each week of Advent, whose growing light marks the approach of Christmas and the coming of Christ the light of the world.
Glossary term
The daily prayers at morning, midday, and evening by which the faithful recall the Incarnation, and the Easter antiphon that replaces the Angelus throughout the fifty days.
Solemnity
On November 2 the whole Church prays for the dead who are still being purified, offering the Eucharist for them and pleading God's mercy on every soul in purgatory.
Optional memorial
The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major — an optional memorial of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Optional memorial
The Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles — an optional memorial of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Feast
The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica — a feast of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Mass structure
The great prayer of thanksgiving and consecration at the center of the Mass, of which the Roman Missal offers four principal forms together with others for particular occasions.
Optional memorial
The First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church — an optional memorial of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Memorial
The Holy Guardian Angels — a memorial of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Optional memorial
The Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary — an optional memorial of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Optional memorial
The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary — an optional memorial of the General Roman Calendar celebrated during Ordinary Time.
Mass structure
The ordered arrangement of Scripture readings for Mass, which opens the treasures of the Bible more lavishly to the faithful across a three-year Sunday cycle and a two-year weekday cycle.