Vatican II: A Walk-Through - The Liturgical Year

1. The Constitution recalls the unchanging practice of the Church of celebrating every Sunday the paschal mystery -- the mystery of the passion, death, resurrection and glorifying of Christ the Lord. Sunday is the original feast day, the center of the whole liturgical year.

2. The liturgical year is to be revised, both to preserve the age-old customs and instructions of the holy seasons, and also to adapt those customs, where necessary, to the conditions of modern times. Detailed rules are provided for this revision; the rules are based upon the pastoral nature of the liturgy -- the need to keep before the minds of Christians the mysteries of salvation in Christ.

3. The Constitution declares that there is no objection to fixing the date of Easter -- provided other non-Catholic Christian communities reach agreement. Similarly, a "perpetual calendar" is acceptable, if it is based upon a reckoning which retains a seven-day week with Sunday, and provided that it does not insert extra days which are considered to belong to no week.

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