From Advent, with which the Church Year begins, to Trinity, our Lord is set before us in His life and His work. "We live over again, year by year, the time of the Incarnation from Bethlehem to Bethany." The design is to "bring out, and to bring home to the minds and hearts of all who shall reverently use these holy festivals and fasts, the great representative facts of Christ's life—to exhibit and to glorify Him. And that not in a vague, mystic, or one-sided way, but by setting Him before us in all the majesty and beauty and completeness of His character, from the manger to the Cross, and from the Cross up to the mediatorial throne. Thus a complete Christ, if one may so speak, is set before us. All the great facts of His life are marshaled into line and proportion; every feature and lineament of His character is revealed and illuminated; every office He sustained in the work of redemption is affirmed and emphasized."
In the long season from Trinity to Advent we are taught to use practically the Faith in which we have thus been instructed, and "to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life."
In conjunction with this teaching there is also the thankful commemoration of "the wonderful grace and virtue declared in the saints who have been the choice vessels of God's grace and the lights of the world in their several generations." By a series of Saints'-days distributed throughout the year, and falling one or two in each month, we are kept in mind of how we are "knit together" with the blessed saints "in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ our Lord," and are called to follow "the example of their steadfastness in the faith and obedience to God's holy commandments." There are days dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin; the Apostles; the Baptist as the precursor, and St. Stephen as the protomartyr; to St. Mark and St. Luke as Evangelists; to St. Paul and St. Barnabas on account of their extraordinary call; to the Holy Innocents as the earliest who suffered for Christ's sake; to St. Michael and All Angels, to remind us of the benefits received by the ministry of angels; and to All Saints, as the memorial of all those who have died in the faith.
The advantages of thus making days and seasons the ever-recurring memorials of our Saviour, and of the virtue and example of the saints, are evident. Each year brings to mind the facts of our Lord's life and the great doctrines which He taught. Not a single essential truth of the Gospel is allowed to fall into practical neglect or to drift into forgetfulness. We are reminded to continue steadfast in this Faith and to live by it, and are instructed and encouraged in so doing by the example of the saints whose rest is won.
"And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph-song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia."
List of Books for Reference
"Stones of the Temple." Field.
"Our Parish Church." Baring-Gould.