DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY

THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY

AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

LITURGY AND TIME

Basic Bibliography: (I. Liturgical Year and Calendar; II. Liturgy of the Hours)
• Chupungco, Anscar. Handbook for Liturgical Studies. Volume 5, 2003. (Liturgical Time and
Space) [I and II] Page | 1
• Various Authors. Church at Prayer. Volume 4, 1986. (Originally written in French) [I and
II]
• Anamnesis. Martin Mathias, OJ. Manual Liturgico, 1988; Lopez Martin. La Liturgico. Jesus
Casteliano… dela Iglesia, 1994. (In Italian/Spanish)
• Talley, T.J. The Origin of the Liturgical Year.
• Adam, Adolf. The Liturgical Year: Its History and Its Meaning After the Reform of Liturgy.
1979.
• Taft, Robert. The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, 1986 (original), 1993 (revised).
Course Requirements:
• Attendance/Punctuality
• Discipline
• Major Exams (Midterms and Finals)
• Group Project (Project Paper)
o Catechesis on the Liturgical Seasons
▪ Advent
▪ Christmas and Epiphany
▪ Lent
▪ Paschal Triduum
▪ Easter
▪ Ordinary Time
▪ Sanctoral
o Creative presentation for average parish groups.
o Digest the theology of the assigned season to you.
o It should be catechetical.
o Express them in an understandable manner.
o Acknowledge your sources.
o Avoid vulgarity.
o Capture the Essential.
• Readings (materials for analysis/Exams)
o The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar (February 14, 1969) –
GNLYC
o General Introduction of the Liturgy of the Hours (GILH, vol. 1) - LOH

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

Formulation of the Roman Liturgical Prayer:

We refer to the COLLECT (the Opening Prayer in the Holy Mass). This would be in the
Trinitarian Form, as follows:

Ad Patrem Address: To the Father, e.g. Father, God Page | 2

Amplification (to amplify the address): e.g. Almighty;
what God did…
Petition/Premise: “…”
[the basis of our petition is the amplification]
Purpose (seldom used): “so that…”
Per Filium Conclusion: “Thru… in the Holy Spirit”
In Spiritu Sancto

PRELIMINARIES
Description of the Course: Liturgy and Time (Theology and Forms of Liturgical Year)
Adequate Methodology to treat this topic
Preliminary Topics:
I. Question on Adequate Method
a. Consideration of the concept of time especially from the Bible and from some
anthropological perspective of time
▪ Time in the context of celebration
• In terms of the Bible
• Celebration of the mystery of Christ
o From this perspective, we get the theological dimension
which it tries to discourage to read the Biblical data or
history which is just looking back (past event) but rather
encourages us to be rooted in the framework of the
salvation history.
▪ (x) past event
▪ Read more biblical data always in action
o Salvation: not only as a past thing but also an ongoing
thing
b. Historico-genetic method
▪ How the different parts developed thru time (on liturgical seasons)
c. Calendar
d. Liturgical Seasons (after the Reform)
▪ Adequate method
1. History – Celebration – Theology (a summary from San
Anselmo)

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

2. Every feast is accomplished through the rites and prayers

3. What is the basic working understanding of Liturgical Year?
(and its relation to the cultic activities of the Church →
Structure → LY)
Liturgical Year Page | 3
• A structure that shapes the cultic heritage (structure) of the Church (that gives color to
the celebration of the Church)
• Example: Takes the form of “Palanggana”
• Depends on the season of the liturgical year that colors the celebration
• Influences how we celebrate the rites of the Church
• Almost all the recent research study on the liturgical year, for example, developed it
with the history (historical evolutions), then texts from the Bible (and the actual
doctrinal content)
• When we study liturgy, we take into consideration the historical data, how is it
celebrated using the text used, and the theology
Some Preliminary Concerns/Concept/Issues
I. See discussions above (Preliminary Topics)
II. Expression and Concept of the “Liturgical Year”
o The expression “Liturgical Year” is very recent.
o It emerged in a context when there was a clarification of that conceptual
organization of criterion to the modern times.
▪ Concern in the Modern times of organizing the bodies of knowledge
where they try to clarify the body of knowledge
• Ex. Social sciences, Physical sciences, Encyclopedia
• How do we describe and organize and call this particular thing in
the church which is the celebration (“Common Term”?)
▪ “Organizing Knowledge”
• Conceptual organization of that particular element in the Church
▪ 19th Century
• Term which was related with the publication of the works of the
Church Fathers (ex. Jacques Paul Migne)
• There was a felt need on organizing bodies of knowledge
▪ “Adequate Term”?
• “Liturgical Year” to describe the totality of the annual celebration
▪ Official Books
• 16th and 17th Centuries
o Council of Trent: Did not use specific terms for liturgical
feasts distributed throughout the year.
• “Term” → by the Lutherans (16th Century)

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

o “kirchenjahr”: German term emerged in the Lutheran

context
▪ Kirchen → church
▪ Jahr → year
▪ Literally “ecclesiastical year”/”year of the church” Page | 4
▪ Used for the 1st time by a Lutheran pastor Johannes
Pomarius
• 1589: in a sermon in Wittenberg, Germany
o 17th century (in France)
▪ “Année Chrétienne” (“Christian Year”)
▪ Used in a work by a certain Nicolas Letourneux
▪ 9-volume work: Commentary on Liturgical Year →
not very appreciated because of Jansenist tendency
• Jansenism: a Christian theological
movement in France that emphasizes
original sin.
• Cornelius Jansen (17th c.)
o Jansenists: rigorous followers of St.
Augustine of Hippo’s teaching
▪ “Christian Year”
• Return to Christ and the mystery
celebrated throughout the whole year;
revolving around Christ.
o 19th Century: “Liturgical Year” as such seems to have been
used for the first time by Dom Prosper Guéranger
(Benedictine Reformer of the Monastery of Solesmes)
▪ Considered as a precursor of the liturgical
movement and the reform in the Vatican II
▪ His work: L’Annue Liturgique, 9-volume work,
published between 1841-1856
▪ Continued and completed by his disciple Lucien
Fromage (15 volumes all in all)
o Some liturgists still use “Year of the Lord”
▪ Intends to underline the centrality of the annual
celebration which is centered on Christ (in his
Mystery)
o Liturgical Year gives the impression that such concept
corresponds to our idea or desire to organize rationally the
periods of celebration

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

▪ A time to conceptualize the totality of the Christian

feasts as a unity and as a sacred time
o Observations:
▪ Liturgical Year desires to organize rationally the
annual celebrations of the Church Page | 5
▪ Liturgical Year: to set against the profane time
(Civil Time/Cosmic Time)
• Such an idea of placing sacred time of
celebration to human concerns does not
fully corresponds to the spirit of liturgy
o Profane time vs. sacred time
▪ Alternative Term:
• At first, “Time and Liturgy” (seems to be
ambiguous and open to interpretation)
• Proper: “Liturgy and Time”
III. Alternative Proposal
▪ By famous French liturgist Louis-Marie Chauvet
• Her proposal: In order for us understand the liturgical calendar,
we should “start forgetting” for the fact that the Liturgical Year
runs the risk of being perceived as a grand socio-drama that
mimes/mimics the stages life of Jesus, runs the risk of distorting
its meaning.
• “Parousia”
o Greek “Calends”: “A time that will never come”
• “forget it” / “start forgetting”`
o A great risk that the Liturgical Year is presented as if a
grand socio-drama that mimes the life of Jesus.
o Danger: the Parousia is compromised (paikut-ikot ka lang…)
• To discover the organic structure of the Liturgical Year
• Chauvet (a review of the two parts of her proposal):
1. “start forgetting” the liturgical year in order to understand
and appreciate the liturgical calendar
2. Socio-drama → compromises precisely the sense of
direction of the Parousia
▪ Position of the Church
• Liturgy is not mimicking the life of Christ.
o We celebrate the MYSTERY OF CHRIST → PASCHAL
MYSTERY
o The Birth of Christ is connected with his PASSION.

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

▪Example: Within the Christmas Octave, there are

the martyrdom of St. Stephen and the killing of the
Holy Innocents
IV. The Organic Structure of the Liturgical Year (expressed by Chauvet and other
Liturgical Theologians)
Page | 6
▪ How we must proceed in our consideration of the Liturgical Year
(discover the organic structure of the LY)?
▪ LY arranged in linear form. Not the best way of looking at it…
▪ Where does the Liturgical Year begin?
• Beginning of the Liturgical Year
o Actual Roman Calendar does not consider this problem.
o 1969: GNLYC espouses the principles and establishes the
regulations concerning the cycles of the Liturgical Year.
▪ General Norms for the Liturgical Year and
Calendar (1969)
o The actual liturgical books, although they did not this
particular question, contemplated the arrangement of
beginning and end of the liturgical year.
o But in its lived reality, the Liturgical Year has its internal
logic which must be discovered.
▪ Example: 1st Sunday of Advent (should be the
beginning of the Liturgical Year) → theme is about
the “end”: a sort of contradiction
▪ One celebration celebrates every aspect of that mystery
• Beginning and End of Salvation (mystery) are celebrated and are
intertwined in the liturgical celebration
o Chauvet: Greek “Calends” → “time that will never come”
▪ Older Roman Liturgical Sacramentaries:
• Gelatianum Vetus
• Gregorian Sacramentary (Hadrian)
▪ “Circulus anni”
• Found in the title (in Gel. Vetus) “Liber Sacramentorum Romanae
Ecclesiae Cordis Anni Circuli”
o “The Book of the Sacraments of the Roman Church in its
Annual Order”
▪ The cycles of the year
• Gel.. Vetus → subscribes to the idea of a cycle → then returns
again
o “circular” → not emphasized, no criterion related to this
concept of this beginning and end

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

▪ One Document: “Gallican Lectionary” (part of Germany, emerged around

500 CE)
• Testifies a Church year which places its start on “Easter Day”
• Church Fathers:
o Zeno of Verona Page | 7
▪ In a series of sermons: Easter as the beginning of
Liturgical Year
o St. Augustine
▪ In a treatise of John → Psalm 22:17 → “The Lord’s
Passion” (Holy Week) as the last week of the Year
▪ “novissima hebdomada”
▪ And so, the first week of the Liturgical Year would
be Easter.
▪ The Resurrection constitutes a new beginning.
• Marks a new creation (a baptismal theme)
o Leo the Great (4th and 5th Centuries)
▪ In one of his sermons on the Passion, he used
“Pascha” (Passover):
▪ Easter as the “Exordium”
• Beginning of the new world
• Beginning with the Christian is reborn
▪ Easter (placed between March and April) as
“Exordium”
• New creation (creation made new)
• New creature (baptism, children of God)
• History:
o Old Calendar: the beginning of the Year (in the civil and
other considerations) → March (1st month of the year;
coincides with the beginning of the Liturgical Year)
o Example: “Ember” days/times → March (1st mo.), June (4th
mo.), September (septem - 7th mo.) and December (decem -
10th mo.) → “Quatuor Tempora”
▪ Introduced in Rome as days of Fasting.
▪ Before the reform of the Vatican II, many
ordinations were done in these months (as
“preparation”)
▪ Gelatianum Vetus: part 1, section 20 → March →
temporal month (tempora of the first month)
o Sidonius Appolinaris (towards the end of the 5th century)

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

▪ February is indicated as the 12th month of the Year

(last month)
o Romulus (one of the founders of Rome) divided the Year
in 10 months
▪ His successor Numa Ponpilius → Lunar Cycle → Page | 8
added January and February
▪ In the ancient Roman: Civil Year → March 1 (start)
o 153 CE: On New Consular Officials, assumed their office
on January 1st
o Mid 2nd Century (January 1)
▪ January → Start of the official year in Rome (a
change from March to January because of the
reorganization and addition of the two months by
Numa)
▪ Liturgical Historian, Mario Rogetti → March 1 →
was not adapted as the start of the Liturgical Year
because it coincided with the civil year
▪ Exodus 12:18 “In the first month, from the evening
of the fourteenth day until the evening of the
twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread.”
o Lunar Calendar (Jewish Sacerdotal Calendar)
▪ Month of the equinox
▪ Nissan Calendar
• Nissan towards the Middle of March
• Based on the Lunar Calendar
• The time when we celebrate EASTER
• Also a time of the celebration of the Annual
Jewish Passover
o References: Christian Celebrations → 1st Month → March 1
▪ After some time, it was not anymore considered as
the beginning of the church year because of the
emergence of the LENT (40 days of preparation)
▪ March 1 (as the 1st month) was displaced.
▪ Easter Day
• The only celebration
• The original celebration would be on
Sunday
• Consists of 2-day Preparations (the “paschal
triduum”):
o 2-day preparation

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

o Paschal fast (most ancient

preparation for Easter)
• Was amplified to 40 days (Lent;
“quadragessima”)
Page | 9
March 1 (cannot be
claimed anymore as

Christmas/Advent Septuagessima the beginning of the

Liturgical Year)
Cycle (6th/7th c.) Nissan/Easter

2-day preparation

4o days

o 800 CE: Sacramentary of Salesburg start with the

celebration of Septuagessima
o But the beginning is moved because of its other
considerations… the Easter remains (real beginning of the
liturgical year) → the Organic structure (to point out the
real beginning of the LY)
▪ “Organic Structure”: Beginning (fixed point) of the Liturgical Year →
Easter
▪ 1st part of the 6th Century: new beginning “Christmas” is gradually
imposed → first time appeared in the Roman Calendar
• Chronograph of 354 (a kind of almanac)
o Christmas was considered with equal rank like the feast of
saints (with the celebrations of the saints, not in the
Temporal Cycle; Sanctoral Cycle)
▪ An Issue/Controversy:
• 400 CE: St. Augustine interpreted Christmas as a mere
anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ
o “in memoria” → “an anniversary”
o Easter: “in sacramento” → it has salvific character
o Then, the importance of Christmas was still ambiguous.
• St. Leo the Great: “Christmas is not only an anniversary but also
the beginning of salvation.” (“sacra primordia salutis”)
o He was one of the sources of great orations or prayers
about Christmas.
o His statement shaped the structure of Liturgical Year that
would start with Christmas. Eventually would coincide
with the Advent.

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

• Gelatianum Vetus (7th c., makes an important distinction between

temporal cycle and sanctoral cycle; in the sacramentary orationes
Alberto Domini)
o Presence of the profound dynamics which has its nucleus
or point of departure in the PASCHA OF THE LORD. Page | 10

TIME OF THE BIBLE

1. Anthropological Premises (some)
a. “To Take Place” by Jonathan Smith
▪ 1987
▪ Summarizes his main points
▪ Started his anthropological perspective in order to explain the
relationship between time and liturgy.
▪ For him, since the beginning, the rite is tied up to a particular place and
specific objects for they give regularity which is one of the characteristics
of a rite.
• Time and Liturgy
• Rite → place/objects → sense of regularity
• Rite needs regularity which is connected with place and objects.
▪ He affirms that in his study of the history of liturgy and the Church, that
in the 4th c., the places in which certain occurrences of celebrations would
have been widespread and fixed on specific days of the week.
• 4th c. “place” → fixed days of the week
• He takes the experience of a nun in her work “The Pilgrim in the
Holy Land (Itenerarium Egeriae, 381-383) to illustrate his points
that the celebrations where tied up with places (that are significant
as they are connected with the life of Jesus). In every place, there
is celebration (biblical).
o Reading of the accounts of the events accompanied with
prayers
• Celebrations: places → events in the Bible
o Starting from Jerusalem, these rites attached to these holy
places would be tied up to time which is repeated
annually.
o Time → repeating it annually
o Those pilgrims who go to the Holy Sepulcher to celebrate
the life of Jesus afterwards the memory of the death of
Jesus would be taken up and placed precisely in a
temporal cycle that is celebrated every year.

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

• Place-related celebrations which does not contemplate the issue of

time → would in time become time-related celebrations
• This gave birth of the Liturgical Year (transition)
Celebration Aptae loco (dative, proper place) → aptae loco et
o
diei (proper place and day) Page | 11
b. Gregory Dix, an Anglican Benedictine (+1952)
▪ His view: The stage of development in Jerusalem in the 4th c. presents it as
the start of a new historical consciousness of the church which transform
or even remove the eschatological structure.
▪ Liturgical Year connected with the waning of the eschatological
consciousness of the early church
▪ 4th century (the Lord has not yet returned, and so they adjusted their view
of the Day of the Lord, also their view of time and history): they would
start to have a clearer historical consciousness of Christianity, a growing
consciousness of the reality, reawakened their historical consciousness.
▪ 313 CE: Peace of Constantine
c. Thomas Alley, an American Liturgist belonging to Episcopalian Church
▪ He opposed the juxtaposition of Gregory Dix
▪ He affirms that the eschatological (expectation) consciousness and
historical (commemoration) consciousness goes hand in hand since the
Paschal spirituality of the first experts (?).
d. Mircea Eliade (+1986, Romanian sociologist)
▪ He noticed right away that Christianity has already a strong historicity of
Incarnation.
▪ (Origen) Incarnation of the Son of God has happened in a Historical Time
and not simply in a Cosmic Time
▪ History vs. Eschatology → not very correct/logical
▪ Christians do not forget that the mystery of the Incarnation even if it is a
historical fact cannot be reduced to its historicity (only historical and
eschatological dimension).
o Until the 4th c.: There was no fully developed calendar of the Church. The church
ignored this calendar and did not distribute religiously the time of praise event
to the rhythms of the calendar (solar/lunar).
▪ On the other hand, we should also take note that the Christian worship is
at the same time free from spatial-temporal determinations but they do
not totally express Christian worship (worship does not totally-temporal
need spatial determinations… just a part of it.)
▪ John 4:33
• “a-ritual” vision of Christian worship (worship in spirit and in
truth)

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

o Example: 3 theological themes of the Letter to the Hebrews

→ Worship (Jesus to continue offer sacrifice before the
Father in heaven.)
o Priesthood of Christ → basis of our liturgy
o Some of the Notions of Time Page | 12
o Experience of Acceleration and Fragmentation of time
e. With this, we think that “time is a commodity” → “causifying” vision of time
▪ Ignored its mysterious dimension
▪ Acceleration: “production” → forgetting time as for encounter,
relationship (functional and effective way of spending time)
▪ Fragmentation: limiting time (ex. 15-minute homily; homily based on the
span of attention of the people)
• Incapable of duration
• We could not have the sense of connectivity
• We need to reaffirm that Liturgical Year is a reality that is found
in the category of time that is something that should be
understood and defined.
• Liturgical Year: a container, structure that shapes our celebrations
with Christ.
f. What is Time?
i. An archetypal primitive experience of the people
• Time would be considered by the ancient people as one of the
deities/forms of manifestations of the Supreme Being from where
life flows as a river of life.
• Jorge Luis Borges, Augustinian Poet (+1986)
o “Time is the substance of which I am made.”
o “Time is a river that drags me but I am the river. It is a
tiger that tears me to pieces but I am the tiger. It is a fire
that consumes me but I am the fire.” → paradoxical
character of time
• Heidegger: “I am my time.”
o Time of the person is identified with his successive
continuity connected with his being a human subject. And
our becoming becomes the totality of being a human.
o Time is difficult to define, but the point of discussion here
is that, yes, we may not we not be able to define time as it
should be yet we have to start with our experience of time
and thus this time we affirm that time is meaningful.

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

o Time and its meaning is tied up with our particular

initiation of time. (culture, experience of time; social and
cultural context)
• Angelo de Bernardino
o The experience of time and history in the church and Page | 13
liturgy: The articulation of time which is realized in the 4th
century has been one of the most radical and enduring
social religious revolution which pertain to whole
posterior history. Liturgical Time conditions now the
whole society.
• Therefore, Liturgical Year is meaningful because of our
experience.

TRANSITION
a. From the Cosmic Time to Liturgical Time
▪ The rhythms of time in the liturgy manifests a very complex organization
which is at the service of daily, weekly, annual celebrations of the
Mystery of Christ.
▪ “A-ritual” version of worship
• Non-ritual version of worship (beyond time and space)
▪ The liturgy has the need of time.
• We must have a balancing act between spiritual and
practical/functional view of time (encompasses mystery of Christ
with his Incarnation)
▪ Men and women live in anguish and are subjected to the continuous
tension due to the passage of time
• Inverted relation of human beings and his relationship with time
is precisely that of money
▪ Medieval agricultural society → objective of work: to satisfy needs; for
survival
▪ Medieval → commerce/profit → “ultimate reason” of business and any
human relationships (within the framework of productivity)
• Subjected to quantity and production
• Time is not anymore the measure
o Emptiness that needs to be filled with so many kinds of
activities
• Quality and human relationships (with others and
nature/universe) → becomes secondary → “emptiness”
▪ Time → as a possibility with hopes, possibility for salvation in which one
can place his/her experience.

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

▪ People need to recover the sense of time of the sacred, the qualitative
value of the acts of existence (not only production) of the ultimate
meaning of life in order to get out from this slavery of consumerism.
▪ Through the rediscovery of the “Sacredness”/meaning of time:
qualitative value of its existence Page | 14
▪ Another view of time → centered on Christ → the master key to our
history (Mark 2:27-28; time is for humans, human is not for Sabbath)
▪ Human must resort to that means of salvation in which Christ is offering
to us. The Liturgical Year is just one of the means but very important
means → salvation offered by Jesus Christ is experienced.
• Liturgical Year becomes a means in which we try to experience
and appropriate for ourselves the salvation → means to recover
the equilibrium of life
▪ Every time as a 1) gift and an 2) opportunity of grace and salvation
▪ COSMIC TIME IN RELATION TO SACRED TIME
• Time is the measure of all things as regard duration; Space is the
measure of all things as regard extension.
o It is not only a mathematical thing.
o Heavenly bodies: day/hour → signs of that true duration
of things
• Cosmic time
o Mathematical time measured by clock
o Objective measure of human life and activities
• Interior Time
o Conscious
o Does not coincide with the velocity of the cosmic time.
o Time passes more (accurately)
o Childhood (faster time)
o Human beings’ sensation of time.
▪ Time has diverse dimension.
• Exclusive and peculiar value
o Association:
▪ Morning → birth
▪ Night → death
▪ Noon → pure present
o Every moment has its importance; reflects the moments in
human life (time)
o Cosmic time = profane time (contradistinction with the
“sacred time”)

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

o Notion → sacred time

▪ “halt” in that time; in the influence of God; in the
“parenthesis”, a space, an incision in the process of
the coming of things.. that movement of relentless
passage of time Page | 15
Sacred Time

• Eternity
• Divine time
• Greater time
• Return

o Hierophany → manifestation of the divine

o Religious time
▪ Sacred Time within the cosmic time but with other
dimensions.

Connected with life experiences

Winter (death)
with the passage of time

Spring (birth/rebirth)

o Given birth to CALENDAR

▪ A list of which time/days that are favorable and
other non-favorable times or days (ex. Chinese
calendar → lucky and unlucky)
▪ Not a measurement but an indicator of the power
included in time.
o Sacred Times present themselves as times which return
every year.
▪ Circular (continuous return)
▪ Only interrupted by the Ordinary Time (profane
time)
o Characteristic:
▪ An experience of qualitative passage of time
▪ Something that is reversible, can be recovered

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▪ ST reiterated: its actualization of the original myth

(original salvific event)
• It recreates a new beginning (through
evocation of the myth)
o Ex. Celebration of New Year (in Page | 16
whatever culture)
▪ Throwing of things in Italy
▪ They think it would bring
them new pure (present state
of things/life of things)
▪ New beginning → original
force of all things (destroying
the old, emerging of the new)
▪ Sacred Time: re-generator of the cosmic time
b. Sacred Time to Historico-Salvific Time
▪ Phenomenology of Religion (from ancient religions)
• A time in the experiences of human beings has its meaning and
course
• Authors: nature-related feasts of Israel were transformed into
“commemorative feasts of facts” (historical events of the people of
God)
o Ex. Passover (“Pesach”)
▪ Not an original feast of Israel
▪ Originally a feast of the nomads
▪ Transformed into a memorial of God’s power (after
liberation from Egypt)
▪ They come to profess the transcendence of God
(after liberation, that God is God of nature)
▪ Interpretation: (x) cosmogony, (/) history
• Events of salvation make history (salvific intervention of God)
o Theophany (manifestation of God)
• Historical Time → not circular but linear time
• Judeo-Christian’s view of time has that cyclic view of time.
• God calls his people through the COVENANT.
o In the passage of time, they became agents of making
God’s works but they could also be counter-history as they
move contrary to the design of God.
• Within history → God saves us.
o Becomes an uninterrupted time of God’s goodness.

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o Not anymore “Chronos” but rather a “Kairos” (the salvific

time wherein God works to save his people)
• “fullness of time”: the time of a completed reality (the promise
became a reality/prophecy became an event)
o Galatians 4:4-6 “God made himself Emmanuel entering Page | 17
into time through the incarnation of His Eternal Word who
is the image of God…”
• Jesus inaugurates a “new” time, “in illo tempore”
• Definitive act of salvation with definitive value
o Passage towards His Father → Paschal Mystery
o When history has reached its fullness of time → Coming of
Christ
▪ Historico-Salvific Time
• A continuous line in which every event encompasses the past and
the future but has an impossible return to the origin.
• Rather, it is a new promise for further perfection of that which is
to be fulfilled.
• Christ as the luminous center; illumines the past and the present
o Colossians 1:15; Apocalypse 1:5
c. Historico-Salvific Time to Liturgical Time
▪ Sacred Time was like a circumscribed space, in which there is a need to
access it in a certain way to make the power favorable that is manifested
in it.
• Access through ritual/series of actions/established gestures
o You cross the threshold that separates the sacred and the
profane
o Also to make us access to the original divine action of God
by imitating the supposed action of that deity (to actualize
its original power)
o Representations through symbols/roles of persons
▪ You have to imitate the divine action as
manifestation of the divine.
o Because of the ritual, sacred time becomes a liturgical time,
the festive framework of action
• Religious calendar of Israel
o Points of contact with those of the neighboring nations
since the bottom line every calendar is based on the cosmic
time.

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o Therefore: the division of time was summarized also in

Israel that is transformed into Liturgical Time or Ritualized
Time.
o Israel made sacred their time
▪ Ex. The day was opened and closed through Page | 18
morning and evening sacrifices (Exodus 28:38,42;
Numbers 28:2-3)
o Sacred Time of Israel:
▪ Week (Jewish week): Jews roam around the
SABBATH (Exodus 20:8-11)
▪ Month: sacralized with the rhythm of the NEW
MOON
▪ Festivities: time of fertility, Numbers 28:11-14
▪ Seasons: the dangers of cosmic time are identified
with the renewal of the SOLAR YEAR
• Examples:
o “Pesach” (Passover) → Unleavened
Bread (Spring)
o Pentecost → Harvest (Summer)
o Tabernacles → (Autumn)
o Week of Weeks (Sabbatical Year,
Exodus 23:10-11)
o Jubilee Year (every 50 years; 70 x 7
years; Leviticus 25:8-17)
• But with the historicization of these feasts according to the
prophetic interpretation of history which sees the paths of events
of salvation, this framework remains.
o Original cosmic references could not disappear.
• Word of God (essential to highlight the relationship of the rite
with the HST) and Usual Ritual → justification of the new festive
ritual
• Salvific Event: not only an object of memory or pure evocations
but an object of actualization of that event in the Liturgical Time
(“Pagsasangayon”)
• “effective again” of the here and now of the celebration
o A new intervention of God through the rites:
▪ Effective memorial
▪ Mythical return to the origin
• Shows the effort of human beings to get out
of time and dominate history.

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• Effect: The Liturgical celebration of the liturgical time leaves a

mark → progressive movement of internalization and
universalization of the salvific process.
o Through liturgical celebrations, that specific once and for
all action of God becomes more internalized and Page | 19
universal (made available through symbols → “WORD”)
o “anamnesis” (not for the sake of recalling): it is a view of
the present and future, not of the past
o Progressive prophetic line would flow to the Christ event
(would become CHRISTIAN LITURGICAL TIME)
▪ Biblical Liturgical Time becomes Christian Liturgical Time through Christ
• Mystery of Christ
o Fullness and fulfillment, definitive meaning in the facts
and words of Jesus Christ.
▪ The transition from Historico-Salvific Time to Liturgical Time of Israel,
flowing through the Christian Liturgical Time which passes through
Jesus Christ who is the TRUE ACTOR of the Liturgical Time in the Bible.
d. Christian Liturgical Time
▪ Jesus Christ gave fulfillment to those which are announced by the
religious institutions of Israel; also the liturgical time and feasts.
▪ All religious institutions pass to the Church through Jesus Christ.
▪ In Jesus Christ, there would be transformation in terms of its content and
meaning
▪ Dynamics → same
▪ Facts and words of Jesus Christ
• Normative content of the Liturgical time which would be the
fulfillment of what has been said in the past
• Fulfillment already happened in Christ.
o But a proclamation of what God has fulfilled in Christ once
and for all.
▪ We evoke events in the Old Testament
• This would become an illustration that would help us understand
this fullness in Jesus Christ (understand better the mystery of
Christ)
▪ Center of the celebration of Christian Liturgical Year: Mystery of Christ
▪ Schemes and laws of salvation do not only belong to the past but also of
the present and the future.
▪ Jewish Liturgical Time vs. Christian Liturgical time (in terms of
salvation/salvific event
• Difference: Both reveal the intervention of God in human history

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o 1. Stages of preparation and announcements but they lack

the salvific efficacy (JLT)
o 2. Fulfilled/completed reality and are efficacious by virtue
of the Christ event which is made present. (CLT)
▪ History of salvation is PROLONGED with the celebration of the Page | 20
Eucharist.
▪ Days and Feasts are not anymore isolated moments of profane existence
but Christian Liturgical Time a permanent time of grace which Christ
opened for all.
▪ Why then we return to celebrate the Mystery of Christ every year?
• Undeniable fact: Jesus Christ has reached its encounter with
peoples and cultures. He was able to encounter the spiritual
genius of every period, place, because it has always sought to
respond to the notions and necessities of human beings, a need to
overcome the passage of time and to live it as an opportunity of
salvation.
▪ Biblical Liturgical Time: based on history, facts and words of Salvation
which God manifested himself
▪ Christian Liturgical Time: which would close again humans in a repeated
return would not anymore be necessary.

MYSTERY OF CHRIST (Paschal Mystery) AS THE HEART OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR

• Paschal Mystery
o A rediscovered term (only at the last century)
o Totality of the events (of Christ) and facts (passion, death, resurrection and
glorification of Christ)
o Seen as a unity (of the Paschal Mystery) towards the economy of salvation.
1. Biblical Foundation of the Paschal Mystery (“PM” not found in the Bible)
a. “MYSTERY”
▪ Contains eschatological sense
▪ What appears in the Qumran text, connected with the plans and secret
decisions of God concerning what will happen in the future.
▪ Gk. Mysterion (musthrion)
▪ Synoptics: coming of Christ as the coming of the Kingdom of God
• Matthew 4:11 → mystery of the Kingdom
• The necessity and preaching of Christ: the kingdom is revealed
• Events in Christ’s life as expression of this mystery
▪ Pauline Literature
• Gk. Mysterion appears very frequently

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o Romans 16:25
▪ Mystery of God/Christ/Godliness, Gospel, etc.
• Salvific divine will → all centered in Christ and plan of salvation
o Ephesians 3:4-6
• It is also understood as “OIKONOMIA” of salvation. Page | 21

o Ephesians 3:9
o The temporal organization and disposition of salvation
and the successive stages through which the divine plan is
realized.
o Concrete expression: the coming of the Son of God into the
world, the Church, and the final consolation of the created
consolation.
▪ Mystery: Christ revealed himself in an excellent way (Cross)
• Yet we are participating in that mystery in which we can access by
our faith and gain the salvation that he offers.
• Gratuitous self-manifestation, a free gift of God (revelation)
• It is a mystery known to us because God reveals himself (a gift).
• Has close connection with the Christian mystery and the salvific
events and its manifestations narrated in the Scriptures.
• Mystery is Christ.
b. The Paschal Mystery
▪ The death and resurrection of Christ constitutes unity.
• Paul:
o Death as historical fact, a separate fact from resurrection
(effect of the weakening of the flesh)
o Resurrection: “separated” (effect of God’s power)
o But they are closely interrelated with each other because
death is the meritorious cause of the Resurrection.
o According to him, the same salvific event is derived from
either from the death or the resurrection of Jesus.
• John
o John 8:28/John 12:32
▪ Death on the Cross → of the same time a moment
of elevation and glorification of Jesus
o John 13:1
▪ The Paschal death of Jesus is his passage from this
world to the Father… from death to life
o Hebrews 2:10

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▪ “should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect

through suffering.”
• Therefore, salvation is fully realized with the Death and
Resurrection of Christ.
• Therefore, Jesus is Saviour (the Risen Lord) not only during his Page | 22
death but also especially with his resurrection.
o Acts 2:36
▪ Joyful proclamation of the Apostolic Kerygma
(That in the resurrection event has constituted Jesus
as the Lord and Messiah)
o Acts 5:31
• Paschal Mystery is a product of the fusion of these two mysteries:
o Pascha (bet. 2nd and 4th centuries)
o Mysterion
• Advantage: this expression embodies the means to concentrate on
Christ or the salvific mystery; captures beautifully and
summarizes that in Christ can be summarized the whole salvific
event
o Death and Resurrection → Apex of PM → center of the
whole salvation history
• Paschal Mystery becomes our optic with which we look back at
the history and becomes now the perspective we look at also in
the future.
• Paschal Mystery → Jesus Christ as the RECAPITULATION
o Permits us to understand the history of salvation
o In the manner of the ancient Pascha which can be
perpetuated and can be accessed by generations through
the liturgical memorial (the suffering of the Lord), in the
sacramental action, and in the liturgical year and in the
prayers of the Church → mystery made present
o PASCHA can be accessed through LITURGICAL
MEMORIAL, LITURGICAL YEAR, CELEBRATIONS OF
THE CHURCH.
• Paschal Mystery captures the beauty of the mystery of Christ.
2. Mystery of Christ in the Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Fathers (1st Century to the Early
2nd Century)
o Use of the Greek word “Mysterion”
a. Ignatius of Antioch (used it 3x)
i. Letter to Magnetia

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• Dealing Substitution with the Jewish Sabbath with Sunday affirms

that those who do not observe anymore the Sabbath live
according to the Lord’s Day in which our lives has emerged
through it and from his death and in which we persevere in order
to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
Page | 23
• Mysterion as the salvific mystery of Jesus’ Cross which leads us to
resurrect with Christ himself.
ii. Letter to the Ephesians
• Affirms that there are 3 mysteries that are hidden from the princes
of this world:
o Virginity of Mary
o Birth of Christ
o Death of the Lord
iii. Letter to the Church of Trallians
• Ignatius speaks of deacon of the mystery of Christ
o 1 Corinthians 4: Ministry of the Word of God
• Incarnation of God
o Never abstracted from the mystery of the Pascha. It is seen
as an event in which the descent of the Word among us
reaches its fulfillment in the humiliation of the Cross and
brings recognition to accomplish of elevation of humans.
• Incarnation <–>Death <–> Resurrection
3. Catechesis of the 4th Century
o Contribution: inclusion of the Christian Rites (liturgical celebration considered as
part of the salvific mystery)
o The Christian participation of this mystery considered as the content of the faith
and the Christian rites in general
a. Cyril of Jerusalem
▪ Used the plural form “ta mysteria” (ta musthria)
▪ Applied to the RITUAL OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION
▪ Could be misunderstood → “MYSTERY RELIGIONS”
b. Athanasius
▪ “Contra Arianus”
• Used the singular form “mysterion” as applied to Baptism
• Started in the Pauline idea that the Mystery of Christ must have in
us its ultimate fulfillment (the endpoint) and through the
sacraments of the Church
• Mystery of Christ: (x) liturgical celebrations; (/) influence we
rooted (diluted) in our life as Christians (HUMAN)

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4. Paschal Mystery in the Writings of the Fathers of the Church

o “Paschal Mystery” → applied for the first time on the 2nd part of the 2nd century
i. Melito of Sardis
ii. Anonymous Quartodeciman authors
o 2 Easter Homilies: Paschal homilies connected with the annual celebrations Page | 24
i. A. Typological Exegesis of the Old Law
• Exodus 12
a. Everything is oriented towards the new Pascha of Christ
ii. B. Divine plan of God in Jesus Christ as PRE-EXISTING GOD
• Redemption of Christ: communicated through the liturgical
celebration of the Paschal Vigil; salvation of Christ; mystical
implications (liturgical celebrations)
a. Several Notions of Pascha (as “Passion”)
▪ Melito of Sardis: “Peri Pascha” (165-185 AD)
• The new and ancient, eternal and contemporary; transitory and
everlasting, mortal and immortal, is the Mystery of Pascha.
• “new” according to its grace
• The Christian Pascha presented as a condensation of the whole
mystery of salvation
• Possible: celebration as a unitary history (the whole saving action;
from Creation to Parousia) be celebrated in the Paschal Vigil
• Pre-existence of the Logos, Incarnation, Public Life, Passion, Death,
Resurrection, Ascension…
• The Pascha can be defined as the unity of the Two Testaments.
• Established an equation that the Pascha IS Christ.
▪ Anonymous Quartodeciman Authors
• “In Sanctum Pascha” (In The Holy Easter)
o The text also speaks of the mystery of the Pascha which
includes the whole Christ event
o The coming of Christ on earth (in a homily called
“Epidemia”) culminates with the Paschal Mystery.
▪ Cosmic mystery of the Pascha
• Easter is connected with 14th of Nissan (date of the death of Jesus
Christ; the anniversary)
o Seems to be subscribed probably by the Johannine
tradition, and considered to be older tradition
o Connected with the theology of the Lamb
▪ Pascha of Christ (Passover) as his Passion

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▪ “Pascha” → to suffer; “Paschein” (erroneous, wrong

notion)
▪ Passion → Resurrection (unitary vision of salvation
history)
▪ Irenaeus, Hypolitus and Tertullian: also used Page | 25
“Paschein”
▪ Judaism: connection between Pascha with the
offering of the Paschal Lamb
• To offer the Passover (Pascha) is to offer the
Paschal Lamb
▪ New Testament:
• Matthew 26:17
• Mark 14:2
• John 18:28
b. Pascha as “Passage”
▪ Alexandrians (Origen and majority of the Oriental Fathers)
• This group saw this Pascha and formal exact etymology “Passage”
(diabasis, transitus)
• People became now the subject who passes from slavery from
Egypt to the Promised Land (Freedom)
• Applied to Christ, his passage from death to life; from this world
to the Father
• St. Augustine synthesized this.
o Through the Passion, the Lord passed (transii) from death
to life… he has opened the way in which we also pass
from death to life.
c. Pascha as “Passover” → “to jump”
▪ Palestinian Antiochene Era/Pseudo-Origen
• Pascha as “to go beyond”, “to jump”, to Passover
• Gk Hyperbasis (to go beyond); nuance: Pascha as passage
• Subject of this Pascha: the ANGEL EXTERMINATOR who passes
over the houses marked with the blood of the lamb.
• St. Jerome/Origen: “Passage”  Pascha
• Apolinarius of Laodicea (4th c.): Passover
o “Christ did not eat the meal but He Himself became the
Lamb…”
▪ The fulfillment of which is in the name of God
d. Pascha as “Recapitulation”
▪ Paschal liturgy of Israel

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• Celebration of Exodus: included also the Creation event

• In this context, the “Pascha” appeared as a Recapitulation
• In the Pauline Corpus:
o Ephesians 1:9-10
Page | 26
▪ To sum up all things in Christ, things in heaven
and on earth
▪ Gk. Anakephalaiósasthai (a,nakefalaiw,sasqai)
• To lift, to raise, to elevate (Lt. vulgate
instaurare)
o Ephesians
▪ Developed the idea that Christ regenerates and
unites under his authority to bring it to God the
created world… → recapitulation
▪ Intends to illustrate the unity of the salvific plan,
from Creation to Redemption
• Marcion: The God of the Old Testament is different with the God
of the New Testament…
• Irenaeus: using this concept → persists in the unity of the two
covenants (unity between the Creator and the Saving God…
against Gnostic controversy; the economy of salvation has one
point of reference, and that is Jesus Christ)
• Gaudencius of Brescia (5th c.)
o The Son of God whom through him all things were made
raises once again with his own resurrection the fallen
world. In the same way and at the same time he puts for
the first time the created world to the Father in order that
all will be restored in Christ.
5. Greek “Mysterion” to Latin “Myterium” and “Sacramentum”
o Latin: Post Nicene Period
▪ The “mysterium” was used frequently because of the danger of confusing
it with the mystery religion
▪ Lactantius (240-320 CE)
• Represents the transition of the post-Constantinian Church using
the two terms
• He never used plural term “Mysteria” because of its association
with the mystery religions (first used by Cyril of Jerusalem).
• “Mysterium Veritatis” (mystery of the truth): the secrets of God
which will be revealed
o Sacramentum Dei
o Sacramentum vere Religionis

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o Sacramentum Nativitates Suae

• Lactantius’ dialogue partner was a Greek. So he would use
“mysterion” more.
▪ St. Augustine
• Unity of this mystery → because there is single redemptive Page | 27
mystery
▪ Prospero of Aquitaine
• “The Sacrament of Divine Goodness” (Divine misericordiae
sacramentum)
o Destined to all men and women
o What is the connection between death and life?
▪ Unanimous answer: unity is always emphasized in
the writings
▪ Zeno of Verona/Gaudencius of Brescia: relationship of the means and
the end
▪ St. Augustine: si non moreretur. non resurget… If you would not have
died, you would not have risen…
• Resurrection as redemptive act → connected with the death of
Christ; resurrection → Complement
6. Paschal Mystery in Some of the Writings of the Church Fathers
o St. Leo the Great
▪ 5th century (400-461 CE)
▪ Used the expression “Mysterium Paschale”
▪ Used interchangeably mysterium and sacramentum (used frequently in his
Paschal sermons)
▪ Sacramentum
• Emphasizes totality of the Passion events and the sacrifice of
Christ
• Redemption
• Pascha and its perpetuation in the rite.
• Can mean also “The Cross”
• The visible manifestation of God’s mercy
• The entire work of Christ
▪ We cannot find “Mysterium Paschale” but “Sacramentum Paschale”.
• Sermon 29, Good Friday on the Passion of the Lord (21st of April
444)
o “My dearest people, the Gospel narrative has presented to
us the Paschal sacrament in its totality and the interior
listening has been penetrated through the hearing which

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nobody can claim of not having before his or her the

teacher of the events from the moment of the exposition of
facts divinely inspired… and with what ruthlessness…
with the kind of judgement he was condemned and with
cruelty he was crucified and with what worry he rose
Page | 28
again.”
• Sermon 52 on the Passion of the Lord, Holy Wednesday (April 8,
453)
o We find the same meaning in the Mysterium Paschale.
The Paschale Sacramentum consists of the betrayal of Jesus,
o
the judgment, the sufferings, the crucifixion, and the
resurrection.
7. Paschal Mystery as used in the Ancient Roman Liturgical Sources
o How do these liturgical sources see the Paschal Mystery?
a. One of the Lotus: To look at the Eucharistic Anamnesis
▪ 1st century:
• Oldest form of Anamnesis was inspired by the words of St. Paul:
o 1 Corinthians 11:26
o The content of this anamnesis is the DEATH OF THE
LORD (the nucleus) – the passage to life that tends to the
Resurrection
▪ Constitutes the central object of the Eucharistic
memorial (anamnesis) in its most archaic (ancient)
form.
▪ Beginning 3rd century:
• This anamnetic content was broken or split in the Traditio
Apostolica (oldest anaphora). The text says: “remember debtor,
his death and his resurrection we owe for you” (___ memoris mortis
et resurrectionis Deus ___)
o Split the death and resurrection
▪ 4th century:
• In the ancient Roman canon
o The nucleus of which can be traced back in the 4th century
does not mention the Paschal Mystery in its most
elemental content of death and resurrection, but develops
it further by mentioning the ascension.
o “Recalling this present passion, resurrection from the dead
and glorious ascension into heaven of Christ Your Son our
Lord…” (Memores Christi Filii tui Domini nostri…
passionis…)
o Explicated also the ASCENSION.

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▪ 4th and 5th centuries:

• Constitutiones Apostolorum, book 7, chapter 12:38
o Anamnesis was further amplified (addition of the
PASSION, ASCENSION and PAROUSIA to the Death and
Resurrection of Christ) Page | 29
• Sahidic Anaphora of St. Matthew (eucharistic prayer)
o Anamnesis: we fulfill the mystery which you have
commanded us to do recalling the memory of your eternal
greatness and the marvel which you have done from the
beginning with the creation of the world. Together with
your benevolent Father and your Holy Spirit, your
Incarnation by Mary, virgin, holy and __ that happened
beyond the seed of the man of the signs and wonders
which you have made though the power of your humility
and of the sufferings which you have endured for our
sake, with your Holy Cross of your life-giving death, of the
three days which you spent in the tomb, of your
resurrection from the dead and your ascension into
heaven, of your sitting at the right hand of the Father, of
your coming among us in your terrible and glorious
second coming. To you we offer…”
o Amplified from Creation, Incarnation, and so on.
o At the beginning of this Anamnesis: concentrated on
Memoria mortis
▪ A posterior development (expansion) has
fragmented mystery in its different historical
phases.
▪ First instance: The image of Christ (Pantocrator)
happens to be related with the Paschal event.
• Provided response to the heresies, the
Christian conscience formed an image of
Christ more human and more relevant in
history.
• There was a catechetical need of expressing
and making understand more freely the
meaning of Christ’s mystery, then it became
there was a tendency to explicate and
isolate different faces of Christ’s one
mystery.
▪ 4th Century: With the elements of so many un-
catechized and unprepared catechumens, they had
to be relegated in some way through Catechesis,

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one of the means is the Image to understand the

mystery of Christ.
b. Ancient Roman Euchology (Prayers)
▪ 7th century:
• Most ancient Roman sacramentary of the Roman liturgy Page | 30
(Gelatianum vetus, Veronense, Gregorian sacramentaries)
provided scholars new insight that helped in the renewal of the
liturgy (most especially in the renewal in Vatican II).
• Use of the Paschal Mystery/Mysterium Paschale.
▪ Some usages of the term Paschale in Gelatianum Vetus:
• Mystery can mean every historical events in Christ’s life starting
from nativity (Singulare nativitate mysterium)
o GeV. 2, 5, 14
o GeV. 68, 1023
• Mystery of the Trinity (GeV. 9)
• Mystery in connection with the sacraments of Initiation (GeV. 685)
• Mystery as our participation to the Eucharistic mystery (GeV. 68,
102, 373, 1249)
▪ Old Testament events plus the memorial that they do become a present
reality, present saving event for the present community or assembly that
celebrates this.
• Liturgy commemorates and actualizes these past saving events
and made available for those who participate in the liturgical
event.
▪ Magnum Mysterium (Ancient Prayer of Blessing of Paschal Candle)
• Noctis huius mirabile sacramentum (GeV. 426)
o “under the sacrament of this night”
• Visible sign of this same mystery because it assumes the ritual
structure in which the light of the candle becomes the first symbol
of that Pascha.
• The divine plan realized in Christ and is made present historically
in the celebration of the Pascha of Christ.
▪ Paschale Sacramentum appears in Gelatianum Vetus five times.
• The ritual dimension emerges.
• GeV. 334: The Paschal Mystery was instituted for us.
• GeV. 564: This Paschal Mystery remains always with us.
• GeV. 468, 471: This Paschal Mystery is therefore celebrated
• GeV. 514: and it is celebrated in our favor.

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o The common element: Paschal Mystery as connected with

ritual memorial.
▪ They realized how these documents give importance to the ritual
dimension of this mystery (the mystery of Christ should not float)
• Concretization of that mystery. Page | 31
▪ Parallel expression: Paschale Sacramentum translated to prayers, per
singula selectiones in the Paschal vigil
• Content:
o In the readings, the universality of the object of the
solemnity is demonstrated in the fact that in the
celebration of the Paschale Sacramentum, it is necessary to
know and understand the Scripture whether it is Old or
New Testament (the Paschal mystery should contemplate
and understand precisely from the Scriptures).
▪ The celebration of the Pascha is considered to be related to the PAST of
the sacred history, recognizes in the PRESENT of the work of God, and
attracted towards the good promise for eternity (FUTURE) (GeV. 437).
• GeV. 434
o Paschal Mystery is destined to reach all nations.
8. Paschal Mystery in the Scholastic Theology
a. St. Anselm of Aosta (12th c. +1109)
• For him, the scholastic theology, he used to see the essence of the salvific
action offered by Jesus Christ in the sorrow in the concept of what they call
“SATISFACTIO”
• Its whole idea: How salvation was seen as a kind of satisfying the debt
incurred by human beings because of their sins: SIN = DEBT
• His work: “Cur Deus Homo” (Why God-Man?)
o He insists on the concept of “satisfaction” as an objective reparation of
the natural order upset by the sin of Adam and Christ accomplished
our salvation because he is God-man.
o Jesus as “God-man”
▪ By his sacrifice on the CROSS, he has satisfied or paid fully
for our sins.
▪ Thus, the juridical perspective gained the center of interest of
the soteriology and the piety of the faithful.
▪ From the moment that the satisfactio is fulfilled and concluded
with the death of Christ, his resurrection now can be inserted
in the theological reflection at the utmost, as a complement in
itself and considered not essential to the acquisition of one’s
own salvation.

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•
Became a theological COMPLEMENT → not
necessary
▪ Would consider later on the Resurrection as a kind of
apologetic basis, a proof of the importance of the cross of his
divinity… but was seen as NOT CONSTITUTIVE TO Page | 32
SALVATION.
b. St. Thomas Aquinas
• In his commentary on Romans 4:25
o He considers that either the Death or the Resurrection of Jesus are
the efficient causes of our salvation.
▪ Manifested in the prayers for the dead, novenas for the dead
▪ In the juridical perspective
c. Even until Pope Pius XII’s “Mediator Dei” (1947)
• He never used, for example, “Paschal Mystery” in dealing about
redemption (in its totality)
• A view of Jesus on death is delineated as a fundamental salvific event and
leaving aside the resurrection (the resurrection serves only as an
apologetic argument of the divinity of Christ).
• He insisted on death of Christ as the objective satisfaction (to pay for) of
the sins committed.
• Resurrection as a mere apologetic argument to prove the divinity of
Christ (rooted into our consciousness and the piety of the faithful)
• Problem: The unity of the Paschal Mystery is really compromised.
9. “Paschal Mystery” in Vatican II
• Recovered by the liturgical movement.
• Odo Casel (German, +1948)
o Very active in the liturgical movement
o In the rediscovery of this historico-salvific Christology, at the central
doctrinal elaboration of the Vatican II, he may not be named (Casel in the
documents of Vatican II). His ideas have influenced a lot in the elaboration of
the Vatican II especially in the liturgical movement.
o Vatican II does not speak anymore of salvation of the world and of
redemption without appealing to his dynamic and complete aspect of the
mystery insofar as it is a projection of life in virtue and in daeath.
o With the rediscovery of the Paschal Mystery, it captures the core of
redemption → death and resurrection
a. Sacrosanctum Concilium → the term “Mystery of Christ”
• SC #2, 16, 35, 102
o “mysteries” of Christ (plural form) → in SC #103

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o The different events and facts of the earthly life of Christ is called
Mysteries of Redemption (one/sole mystery of Christ)
▪ SC #102, 103
• All are different mysteries in the life of Jesus.
• Mystery of Christ → “Work of Redemption” (is object of preaching, in the Page | 33
liturgical celebrations, and in the sacrifice in the Eucharist)
o In the mystery of Christ which summarizes this admirable works of
God in the history of salvation (SC #35)
o Must be placed as a background in the teaching of the theological
disciplines (SC #16)
• “Paschal Mystery” → SC nos. 5, 6, 61, 104, 107
o #5: “that the mystery of Christ or the work of redemption is fulfilled
principally in the paschal mystery of this passion, death and
resurrection from the dead”
o #6: “Through baptism, I inserted into the paschal mystery of Christ”
o #106: “The church never missed to meet in an assembly to celebrate
the paschal mystery every 8th day.” (Dominica)
o #104: “days devoted to the memory of the martyrs and other saints,
the Church proclaims the Paschal Mystery” (the relationship between
the saints and the celebration of the Paschal Mystery)
o #107: “the piety of the faithful is nourished in the celebration of the
mysteries of Christian redemption by the paschal mystery”
o #109: “the celebration of which is prepared by Lent”
• Connection with SC#5: One Conciliar father coming from the Scholastic and
post-Tridentine theology, asked that the redemptive work was accomplished
principally through the passion and death.
• The commission responded that the Council did not intend to illustrate the
different theological affirmations that to affirm Unitas Mysterii Paschalis ad
mentem sancti Pauli et Patrii (According to the thinking of Sts. Paul and the
Fathers)
10. Conclusion/Summarys
• Apostolic/Post-Apostolic Period → Unity
• In the liturgical text → Paschal Mystery → also refers to the Christian rites.
• 4th century Mystagogical Catechesis/Homilies
o That the “Paschal Mystery”
▪ Is not only about the salvific events in the life of Christ (historically)
but also of the Christian rites (liturgical celebrations)
▪ With this, the Sacramental participation of the people/faithful
• This is part of that mystery…
• Endpoint: expressed in the life commitment of Christians

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▪ While advancing in the theological systemization, it loses its unitary

vision of the Paschal Mystery.
• One of the reasons:
When it became so juridical and the mysteries are
o
forgotten → mysterico-symbolic categories Page | 34
• 20 c: in the influence of the Liturgical Movement and the change in Christology,
th

there is the rediscovery/recovery of the Paschal Mystery as understood by Fathers

and confirmed by the Vatican II → usage in Christianity
o Paschal Mystery as a synthesis of our historical faith. It should illumine all
our reflection of the Revelation and to be a kind of hermeneutic theme of our
believing/life of faith.
▪ If the object of faith is Christ, speaking directly of Christ, it is not in
the first place an ontology but in its historical perspective is first and
foremost existence and vitalism.
▪ Christ does not remain “floating.” He must influence our way of life.

SUNDAY: THE PRIMORDIAL FEAST OF CHRISTIANS

▪ SC #106: By tradition handed down from the Apostles which took its origin from the
very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the church celebrates the Paschal Mystery every 8th
day with good reason this tend the Lord’s Day or Sunday.”
o The celebration of the mystery of Christ is based on the weekly rhythm as
marked by Sunday.
o Original celebration of Christians: Sunday
▪ In the history, the annual celebration of the Paschal Mystery or Easter →
2nd century (from the historical research)
▪ SC #6 and #106
o Sunday → central place → commemoration of the Resurrection, bestowal/giving
of the Holy Spirit, assembly of the Christian community, and the center of the
assembly are these events is the Eucharist.
I. Apostolic Origin of Sunday
▪ Vatican II, SC #106 attributes the origin of Sunday to the “Apostolic Tradition”
▪ The Church express a general conviction about Sunday.
a. Biblical Foundation/Witness
▪ New Testament passages that refer to Sunday presupposing, some says,
the “Day of the Lord”
▪ New Testament → “Day of the Lord”
i. 1 Corinthians 16:2 → “On the first day of the Week”
▪ Reminder about the collection on the first day of the week for the
community of Jerusalem. (7th day → Jewish Sabbath)

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▪ Between 55 and 56AD: Community of Corinth (to prepare their

contribution to the community of Jerusalem on the first day of the
week → “Sunday”) → “the day” must have already a special
meaning (cf. Galatians 2:10)
ii. Acts 20:7-12 Page | 35
▪ “On the first day of the week” → ”when we were gathered
together to break Bread…” → a habitual thing to gather on that
day → “evening with lamps” → “lucenarium”
▪ Preaching/teaching/sharing also within that context
▪ Between 56-57 AD (happening of this event)
▪ In Troas (place) on the first day of the week
▪ Early Church
a. Presence and Role of the apostles/witnesses → itinerant
preachers and usually presided their Eucharistic
celebrations.
b. Celebration done in the evening: because “the first day”
was a working day for them..
c. Their sabbath was their day of rest.
d. Then, first day of the week, they cannot rest so they have
to gather in the evening when there is no work.
iii. Revelation 1:9-10
▪ “On the Lord’s Day”
a. Source of the Christian name → Dominica, Domingo,
Dimanche, Domenica
b. From Kyriake (adjective) to “Dominica” (a noun)
iv. 1 Corinthians 11:20
▪ “Day of the Lord”
▪ Instead of using it as an adjective, they used a noun….
b. Early Non-Biblical Witnesses
▪ Within the 1st 3 centuries, when the 1st day of the week is
concelebrated as Lord’s day, an important body of literature that
was the first to explicit form of Sunday appears in the ___ and is
amplified in Egypt, Africa, and Rome.
i. Didache
▪ 2nd half of the 2nd century (or 1st half of the 2nd century)
▪ Didache 14:1
o “Assembling on every Sunday, break bread and give
thanks confessing your hopes so that your sacrifice will be
clean”
o “kata kuriaken de kyriou”

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▪ “kata kyriale kyrio”

▪ 1 Corinthians 16:2: “kata kyria Sabatu”
• Assembly on the day of the Lord
• Not only the day but also the breaking of
the Bread. Page | 36
ii. Ignatius of Antioch
▪ Letter to the Magnetians 9:1-2
• “If therefore those who were brought up in the ancient order
of things have come to the possession of the new hope are no
longer observing the sabbath but living in the observance of
the Lord’s Day in which our life are strung up again by him
and by his death”
• “Day of the Lord” → “kuriaken”
o Presence of the fascination of the Jewish tradition →
sabbath → “stop celebrating it”
o Ignatius, in relation to some Christians of pagan origin,
who wanted to celebrate Sabbath (remember those
Judeo-Christians who had stop celebrating it)
▪ They also wanted to celebrate the Sabbath.
▪ Ignatius said: “Stop celebrating sabbath”.
• “Why would you go back to that
celebration of Sabbath?”
iii. Epistle of the Pseudo-Barnabas
▪ 15:9
• “Therefore we celebrate precisely also the 8th day with joy
because it is the day in which Jesus has risen from among
the dead, and after having manifested himself, he
ascended into heaven.”
▪ 1st testimony of the celebration in Alexandria (between 130 and
138 AD) → “context”
▪ The author of this epistle shares with that of Ignatius of Antioch
the paschal reference of the Lord’s Day and the polemics on the
followers of Sabbath; allusions
iv. St. Justin
▪ 1st Apology chapter 67
• “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in the cities
gather together to one place and the testimonies of the apostles
or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time
permits. But Sunday is the day in which we all hold our
common assembly because it was the 1 st day of which God

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having brought with change in darkness and matter laid the

world, and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day He rose
from the dead. ”
• 1st Christian document that describes the Sunday as “Sunday”
• The importance of this… the testimony refers to Romans’ Page | 37
practice towards the middle of the 2nd c.
• “assembly” took place at dawn → working day
o From Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning
• Christian gathering
• Reading of the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the
prophets; as long as time permits → hold an assembly
• “1st day” → Justin connects it with the First Creation with that
of the Resurrection of Christ (an explicit attempt by Justin)
o 1st day of the Jewish week → according to the days of
Creation → “separation of darkness and light.”
• Sunday → “re-Creation”
v. Pliny the Younger (Epistola ad Trajanum)
▪ Letter to Trajan 96:7
o “They assured me that the main fault/mistakes that they
would walk on a stated day to meet together before it was
light, and to sing a hymn to Christ as their God and to
oblige themselves by a sacrament by not to do anything
any sin that is serious but they would commit no theft, no
pilfering, or adultery, that they would not break their
promises or deny what was deposited where it was
required by again after which it was their custom to depart
and to meet again at a common but innocent meal…
certain to meet again.”
o “stata die” (fixed days) → Christians meet before it was
light; includes prayers and hymns to Christ
o Concerned with the moral life of the community and
relationships
o A fragment of his letter (yr. 112) to the emperor → how to
deal with Christians
o “fixed days” → it is a habitual meaning
▪ “innocent meal” → probably the “Eucharist” →
fraternal meeting
• Especially in Corinth
• Community meal: later on would be the
separation of Eucharist from communal
meal

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▪ It could also be that the Eucharist was transferred

from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning as a
consequence already of the imperial edict that
prohibited the gatherings/nocturnal meetings.
They transferred their meeting.
Page | 38
II. Christian Originality/Newness of Sunday
a. Ancient Testimonies about Sunday
i. Consolidation of what it constitutes as the condition by the great majority
of those who have studied this matter that the:
▪ “Day of the Lord” is a genuine Christian creation which can be
traced back…
• Not from the Cult to the Sun (Qumran)
• Not from the Cult of the Sun (of Constantine)
• Neither from a reformed or converted Sabbath nor the
practices of Qumran
ii. Immediate cause of Sunday institution
▪ Found in the Apparitions of the Lord to the community of his
disciples
a. Holy Spirit
b. Resurrection appearances of the Lord
• John 20:19-29
• Luke 24:36-45
• Acts 1:2-3
▪ Origin of Sunday: was not only the Resurrection event but also of
the singular experiences of the witnesses whom God has
designated in the manifestation happened afterwards.
• Mark 16:9-14
▪ On the other hand, according to this same opinion where there is
bridge between the events that occurred in Jerusalem during the
last days of Jesus’ life with the encounter of the Risen Lord with
the origins of the church and the communities of Corinth, Troas,
Asia Minor, North Africa and Rome, those who have reached the
first testimonies of Sunday during the first 3 centuries.
▪ The habit of meeting during the “day of the Lord” became also a
part of those emerging communities in the outside Palestine.
▪ Actual state of our knowledge did not permit us to discover with
all the certainty the origin of Christian observance of Sunday…
the Christian observance of Sunday is authentically Christian
creation which dates back to the most ancient period of the
primitive Christian community and also from the intention of the
same Resurrected Lord.

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III. Names of Sunday

▪ In the Gospel/Bible/Tradition, appears so many names of this day.
▪ A reality that is pervading in the life of humans, usually, we use different names.
a. First Day of the Week
• Were in relation to Christ Page | 39
o Unanimous chronological indication that we find in the Gospel
(Matthew 28:1) and also of the apparitions
o Hebrew:
o Creation of all things (Gen: 3:5)
▪ Represents the victory of Light over darkness (Genesis 1:1-2)
▪ Manifestation of the power of God (as light)
• Inaugurated as the “New Creation”
• 1st Day of the Jewish Week → Creation (Light) → Jesus’ Resurrection as the
“New Creation”
• Christ now fulfills and recreates anew the old creation.
b. The Lord’s Day
• Kyriake ēmera (transformed into a noun)
• Revelations 1:10
• Also from the Didache and Ignatius of Antioch
• “Day of the Lord” → also evokes the day of Adonai
o Joel 2:1-2 (applied to the Passover of Jesus)
o Psalm 117:24 (Resurrection of the Lord: Christ was exalted as Lord
and Messiah)
o Malachi 3:17
o Christ was exalted as Lord and Messiah
• Christ as the Son of God → Revelation 22
c. Sunday as Lord of Days
• Symbol of the lordship of Christ over time
• Alpha and Omega → first and the last (Revelation 1:8ff)
• Holy Day of Sunday → commemoration of the Savior
• 1st fruits of the Resurrection
• Beginning of the Creation of the World: Resurrection → beginning of
the week
• Found in the homily of Eusebius of Alexandria
o “Lord of Days”
d. Day of the Sun
i. Not originally a Christian term

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ii. From Apology I, 67

iii. Song of Zechariah
▪ Tender mercy of God (Luke 1:78-79)
iv. “Sun” → first day of the week
v. 1 Malachi 3:20 Page | 40
▪ “Sun of Justice” (a daybreak)
e. Eighth Day
i. The meaning of the 8th day is related precisely to the concept of Sabbath
(7th day)
ii. Sunday → 1st day (Jewish calendar)
iii. Have an eschatological meaning
i. Some references to number 8 (Sacred Scriptures):
a. Flood (1 Pet 3:30-31)
b. Circumcision: 8 days after birth
c. Baptism: 8th day
▪ Appears as a kind of development in Patristic reflection
▪ “Fullness of Creation” (7th day) → fullness of the week
▪ 8th day → became an image to the “age that is to come”
a. Eternal life
b. A life to come
iv. Three important names:
I. “The Lord’s Day” (as the center reference is Jesus Kyrios, and not
the Creator God)
• “Dominica” (Anglo-Saxon; “Sun day”)
• Emphasizes the role of Christ
• Sunday as the day of Christ → day of Resurrection
a. 3 main aspects which other names would particularize:
i. Memorial Day: which we celebrate in FAITH
ii. Day of Expectation of the Lord’s Return: which we
celebrate in HOPE
iii. Day of the Actual Presence of the Lord: which we
celebrate in LOVE
•
Consists of the Proclamation of God’s word
or the gathering the Christians around the
Word and the Eucharist
II. “The Day of Resurrection”
• Used by the Byzantine Church

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• Explicitly connects with Sunday with that of the Pascha

(Exodus of Christ)
III. “The 8 Day”
th

• Symbolic with its baptismal character

• Emphasis of celebration on Sunday the Sacraments, not Page | 41
only Baptism but also the other Sacraments (ordination of
Bishops: Pope Leo the Great)
• Unfortunately, in the Philippines, we have so much
baptisms on Saturdays.
• St. Augustine:
o “8th Day”: the one that comes after the 7th day is the
8th day and St. Justin saw in this fact that it contains
a mystery as that which has a redemptive
dimension. And St. Augustine would say that the
eight day will deny the first so that the first life
will be restored.”
▪ “1st life” → 1st day
o Connects it with the 1st day because it is the day…
because the first life which was represented by the
first day is now restored in the eighth day…
o A sign of eternal life… it should be commemorated
until he comes again.
• Epistle of Barnabas
o “It is not the Sabbath now that is celebrated that
please the Lord but the Sabbath which I made on
which after bringing all things to the rest, I will
begin an eighth day that is a new world. That is
why we celebrate a joyous feast, the eighth day on
which Jesus rose from the dead, and that after
appearing to his disciples, ascended into heaven.”
▪ Therefore: Sunday as Memorial, Prophecy and Presence.
o The Day of the Resurrection: Commemorative aspects of Sunday
(MEMORIAL)
o The Lord’s Day: mysterious presence of the Risen Lord in his
Church and its celebration (PRESENCE)
o 8th Day: the prophetic aspect of Sunday (PROPHECY)
IV. Names in Relation to the Church
a. Day of the Assembly
▪ Ecclesia tou Kyriou (The Church of the Lord)
▪ Manifested in the Eucharistic celebration
▪ SC #41; LG #26

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o “communitarian life”: symbol of the new covenant → assembly of

the remnants
▪ Didascalia Apostolorum
o Non participation to the Sunday liturgy
o Now when thou teachest, command and warn the people to be Page | 42
constant in assembling in the Church, and not to withdraw
themselves but always to assemble, lest any man diminish the
Church by not assembling, and cause the body of Christ to be
short of a member. For let not a man take thought of others only,
but of himself as well, hearkening to that which our Lord said:
“Everyone that gathereth not with me, scattereth” [Mt 12.30].
Since therefore you are the members of Christ, do not scatter
yourselves from the Church by not assembling. “Seeing that you
have Christ for your head, as He promised – ‘for you are partakers
with us’ -- be not then neglectful of yourselves, and deprive not
our Saviour of His members, and do not rend and scatter His
body. And make not your worldly affairs of more account than
the word of God; but on the Lord's day leave everything and run
eagerly to your Church; for she is your glory. Otherwise, what
excuse have they before God who do not assemble on the Lord's
day to hear the word of life and be nourished with the divine food
which abides for ever”
b. The Day of the Word of God
▪ Emerged after Vatican II
▪ Sunday Assembly manifest to the Christian community the Church of the
Word
• SC #6 and #106; DV #21; PO #4
▪ In the Sunday Assembly, in the two tables of the Body of the Lord/Word,
Christ himself gathers together for the meal of love, then he opens the
Scriptures and raise the bread as once he did to the disciples of Emmaus,
Eucharistic Prayer on Sunday (EP V, ABCDE)
c. The Day of the Eucharist
▪ Sunday finds its meaning on the Eucharist
▪ Martyrs of A___ (?)
• (In a testimony) Eucharist: They used to celebrate the Eucharist
because they could not live without the day of the Lord (sine
Dominico).
V. Names in Relation to Human Beings
a. The Feast of Christians
▪ SC #106: “ The Lord’s Day is the original feast day and it should be
proposed to the piety of the faithful and thought to them so that it may
become in fact the day of joy and the freedom from burden.”

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE
 DIVINE WORD SEMINARY TAGAYTAY
THIRD YEAR THEOLOGY
AY 2018-2019
LITURGY AND TIME
REV. FR. RONNIE CRISOSTOMO, SVD

▪ Connected with the issue of the Sunday precept

▪ Sunday: not just a festive day but a primordial feast of the Christians
• Prohibited to fast and to pray kneeling during Sunday (in the
early church). Because fasting and kneeling are expressions of
penance and you cannot do penance on the day of the memorial Page | 43
of the Resurrection.
o Tertullian, de Corona #3
o Guilty of sin: being SAD on Sunday is guilt of SIN
(Didascalia Apostolorum)
b. The Day of Joy and Liberation
▪ From the later theology/documents: The Day of Joy

FROM THE NOTES OF SEM. LAWRENCE P. PEDRIALVA

SAN PABLO THEOLOGICAL FORMATION HOUSE