Epiphany Proclamation of Easter 2015

The Church has a couple of important and meaningful traditions related to The Feast of the Epiphany: the blessing of homes and the Epiphany Proclamation of Easter. I have previously written about Epiphany house blessings using chalk blessed during the Epiphany liturgy.

The ancient Church had a practice of announcing the dates of Easter as well as other feasts and fasts on the Feast of the Epiphany. The Epiphany is a fixed date feast. It is always celebrated on January 6. It is the last major fixed date feast before we enter the Easter cycle which is characterized by moveable dates. The Epiphany, therefore, became a good time on which to announce the date of Easter as well as other feast and fast dates. The Proclamation, however, announces more than dates. Ultimately, It proclaims the reality that our lives are to be lived in rhythm with and according to Jesus’ life.

Here is the proclamation for this liturgical year:

Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us, and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of His return.

Through the rhythms of times and seasons let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us recall the year’s culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord: His Last Supper, His Crucifixion and Death, His Burial, and His Rising, celebrated between the evening of the 2nd day of April and the evening of the 4th day of April, Easter Sunday being on the 5th day of April.

Each Easter—as on each Sunday—the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed by which Christ has forever conquered sin and death. From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the 18th day of February.

The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the 14th day of May.

Pentecost, the joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the 24th day of May.

And this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the 29th day of November.

Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of Christ in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints, and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history, be endless praise, for ever and ever. Amen.