Deacon Lawrence Toth
(Seventh in Series)
Pope Leo’s August 12, 2026 Wednesday audience was about the liturgical year. Expanding on his theme from the previous week that the Church’s liturgy is the place of encounter with Christ, he highlighted the value of the cycle of Christian feasts in the life of every believer.
The liturgical year begins with the celebration of the first coming of Jesus; proceeds with His baptism, life and ministry; calls the Church to ongoing repentance in Lent; reaches its climax with the memorial of His passion, death, resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Spirit; reflects on the significance of His Paschal Mystery for our transformation in Him; and calls us to be watchful for His second coming at the end of time. Quoting Pope Pius XII, the pontiff reminds us that the liturgical year “is not a cold and lifeless representation of the events of the past, or a simple record of a former age. It is rather Christ Himself who is ever living in His Church. Here He continues that journey of immense mercy which He lovingly began in His mortal life with the design of bringing men to know His mysteries and in a way live by them.” “The liturgical year, Pope Leo continues, “should thus be understood as a constant renewal of the work of salvation which Christ accomplishes in history. As she journeys through this temporal cycle, the Church remains in contact with the Lord’s redemptive action, so that all the faithful may be filled with His grace.”
“The encounter with Jesus, who died and rose again for us, is the purpose that the Church always pursues, placing the celebration of the Paschal event at the center of every moment.” The foundation of the liturgical year is Sunday, which was the original feast day of the Church and has come to be known as the Lord’s Day. In modern times, Pope St. John-Paul II especially encouraged our reverence for this day, saying that, “Since Sunday is the weekly Easter, recalling and making present the day upon which Christ rose from the dead, it is also the day which reveals the meaning of time,” pointing us to Jesus’s return in glory. Pope Leo urged everyone to faithfulness in attending Mass on Sunday and participating in the Church’s life.