Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States

Dear brothers and sisters:

As we have with joy celebrated the Birth and Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ, so through the year we will continue to celebrate the mysteries of our salvation, culminating in Christ's Resurrection on Easter Day. From the date of Easter are derived the dates of our other feasts and commemorations, and it is an ancient custom at this time to proclaim the times and the seasons of the liturgical year.

In this year of our Lord two thousand eight, there will be one Sunday after the Epiphany, until Septuagesima Sunday on the twentieth day of January. On the sixth day of February, the day called Ash Wednesday, we will commence the great and holy fast of Lent. On the twenty-first day of March, the Church will mark with appropriate solemnity the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus, and on the twenty-third day of March we will gather to celebrate with all holy joy his glorious Resurrection from the dead.

The Ascension of our Lord into heaven will be recalled forty days thereafter, on the first day of May; and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost will be celebrated on the eleventh day of May. The feast of the Most Holy Trinity will be observed on the eighteenth day of May.

There will be twenty-seven Sundays after Trinity, until on the thirtieth day of November a new year of grace will begin. And so, through the times and the seasons, the pilgrim Church on earth proclaims the paschal mystery of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who was, and is, and is to come, who is the Lord of all time and all history, to whom be ceaseless praise, world without end!

Amen.