The sacred rhythm of the Church year
Tuesday of the fourth week of Ordinary Time
Brigid of Kildare
The Presentation of the Lord
Thursday of the fourth week of Ordinary Time
Ansgar, Blaise of Sebaste
Friday of the fourth week of Ordinary Time
Rabanus Maurus
Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Agatha of Sicily
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Paul Miki
Monday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time
Richard the Pilgrim
Tuesday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time
Gerolamo Emiliani, Josephine Bakhita
Wednesday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time
Apollonia of Alexandria
Saint Scholastica, Virgin
Friday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time
Our Lady of Lourdes
Saturday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time
Meletius of Antioch
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jordan of Saxony
Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Valentine of Rome
Tuesday of the sixth week of Ordinary Time
Onesimus
Wednesday of the sixth week of Ordinary Time
Juliana of Nicomedia
Thursday of the sixth week of Ordinary Time
Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order
Friday of the sixth week of Ordinary Time
Theotonius of Coimbra
Saturday of the sixth week of Ordinary Time
Conrad of Piacenza
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jacinta and Francisco Marto
Monday of the seventh week of Ordinary Time
Peter Damian
The Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle
Saint Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr
Polycarp of Smyrna
Thursday of the seventh week of Ordinary Time
Praetextatus of Rouen
Friday of the seventh week of Ordinary Time
Walpurga of Heidenheim
Saturday of the seventh week of Ordinary Time
Porphyry of Gaza
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gregory of Narek, Leander of Seville
Monday of the eighth week of Ordinary Time
Romanus of Condat
Tuesday of the eighth week of Ordinary Time
Oswald of Worcester
On the First Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas — so the Church's year opens in late November or early December, not in January.
Advent, Christmas, Lent, the Sacred Paschal Triduum, Easter and Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time is the longest, and falls in two stretches: between Christmas and Lent, and between Pentecost and Advent.
Green for Ordinary Time, violet for Advent and Lent, white for Christmas, Easter and most feasts of the Lord, Our Lady and non-martyr saints, and red for Pentecost, Palm Sunday, Good Friday and the martyrs.
They are ranks. A solemnity is the highest and keeps its own Mass with Gloria and Creed; a feast ranks below it; a memorial lower still, and an optional memorial may be kept or passed over at the priest's discretion.
A day on which the faithful are bound to attend Mass and to rest from work that would hinder it. Every Sunday is one, along with a handful of solemnities that vary by country.