The Twelfth Month of the Lunar Calendar

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the introductory articles: (1) , (2), (3), and (4).  There are more than four articles in the series, but the first four are very important to understanding the conceptual framework.)

Counting back from the first Easter on 17 Nisan to the first day of the twelfth month, Adar, we find ourselves on Ash Wednesday. This is completely coincidental, of course, as the history of the development of Lent is rather complicated.¹ There is nothing interesting happening on the lunar calendar on this date, but the seeming coincidence of Lent with the beginning of the month seems to be an actual coincidence, unlike all the other coincidences we have seen with the calendar that can’t all be mere coincidences.

Thanks be to God that the rest of the month is not so uninteresting. The first interesting occurrence this month takes place on the third day of the month, corresponding to the Friday after Ash Wednesday:

And the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia;  and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

And the sons of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. (Ezra 6:14-18)

The temptation when reading is this story is to assume that the workmen put down their hammers and the priests immediately began offering sacrifices. This is probably not what happened. This was the “official” completion date of the temple, which had probably been usable for some time, at least for a few days. We can imagine that the official completion was probably scheduled for this day so that the first Sabbath could be celebrated on the following day. Anyone who has seen a new building under construction understands that one does not start using it on the exact day it is completed, or when it is just barely usable. So this “fictional” completion date fits nicely with our “fictional” calendar, and it is very fitting that it happen on the eve of the Sabbath.

It is then a very strange thing that the Gregorian propers for this Mass and the one that follows are identical. This only happens once in our calendar, and is said to be due to the historical fact that during the time of St. Gregory, only Wednesday and Friday of Quinquagesima week had their own liturgies, and so propers for the other two days were taken from other Masses. However, while the Mass for Thursday is assembled from bits and pieces of other Masses from throughout the year, the Mass of Saturday simply copies the Gregorian propers of Friday in their entirety, while providing proper orations and readings.² This historical “accident” is very fortuitous in this case, since it suggests a connection between the Friday and the Saturday in this one single isolated case. The communion antiphon is most noteworthy, suggesting liturgical service in the temple: “Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling. Embrace discipline, lest you perish from the just way.” (Ps 2:11–12)

The second temple was completed on a Friday. The new Temple would be destroyed on a Friday, only to rise again on the third day.

We then turn our attention to the Saturday. This was the big “Grand Opening Sabbath” they were planning. Mention in the collect is made of “devoted service,” which implies some sort of official service, “instituted for the healing of body and soul.”

We can add this to the strange list of coincidences we have been observing over the last few months. It is rather appropriate to have four extra days of “preparatory fasting” for Lent fall before the first Sunday of Lent, when the divine office changes to that of the Lenten season. It is almost as though we are preparing our renewed, “second” temples for the coming time of penance. (cf. 1 Cor 6:19–20) This is could make good matter for contemplation during those four days. “Destroy this temple” on Ash Wednesday, i.e. the first temple of God, the one that contains God written on our hearts but as written or engraved on a heart of stone. And in 3 days raise it up again, i.e. the second temple, the one that contains God within our hearts of flesh. The idea of dying to sin is central to the Christian life. (Rom. 6:2-10)

The Mass texts for this Saturday (the ones that are not duplicates of the previous day) are interesting as well, especially the Epistle, taken from the prophet Isaiah:

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.

“If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,

the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the Lord will guide you continually,

and satisfy your desire with good things,

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in.

 “If you turn back your foot from the sabbath,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

and call the sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth. (Is 58:9-14)³

This seems like as good a place as any to talk about Saturdays of our Lady. The reading above from Isaiah speaks of a “watered garden,” a figure used in other contexts to refer to the Blessed Virgin. (cf. Cant 4:12–15) We know that Saturdays have long been traditionally devoted to Our Lady. This idea was especially promoted by Alcuin in the late 8th century.

There are many reasons that Saturday should be devoted to Mary. Rather than collect various sources, it is perhaps more efficient simply to provide the following quotation (this list is not exhaustive):

In the thirteenth century the following “reasons” were given (we report them here without

citing individual sources):

1. Saturday is the day God blessed (cf. Gen 2:3) and Mary is the one who is “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42). The blessed day is therefore appropriate for her who is the Blessed of the Most High.

2. In the same way, Saturday is the day sanctified by God, and Mary is “full of grace” (Luke 1:28). Therefore it is right to dedicate the holy day to her who is All Holy.

3. Saturday is the day on which God rested after creation (cf. Gen 2:2), but the true “rest” of God is Mary, to whom the liturgy applies the words of Sirach 24:8: “The one who created me rested inside my tent.”

4. Just as Saturday is the gateway to Sunday, so too Mary is the gateway through which Christ came into the world.

5. Saturday is the dies media between Friday (sorrowful) and Sunday (joyous). It is not possible to pass from pain to glory without crossing over it. So too is Mary the media between us, living in this land of exile, and Christ, who is already in heavenly glory.

6. On the Saturday on which Christ lay in the tomb and the apostles in their unbelief were in hiding “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19), the faith of the Church was to be found in Mary.

For this reason the Church, each Saturday, recalls the memory of the Virgin who believed and awaited the resurrection of the Son.

7. The same Mother of Jesus has shown her special love for this day. Every Friday evening in the church of Blacherne, in Constantinople, without any human intervention, the veil that covered the icon of the Theotokos was removed. The icon then remained suspended in the air until the ninth hour of Saturday, visible to the faithful. At that time, again apparently without human intervention, it was once again covered and returned to its usual place.

As is evident, these “reasons” are either fantastic or mere coincidences. Nonetheless, they provide explanations for a liturgical fact. However insufficient they might otherwise be, two of them are still meaningful for a person of our times, since they show Saturday to be the day of preparation for Dies Domini. Saturday is the day of Mary’s faith.⁴

We will see little hints of our Lady here and there on the Saturdays of Lent in various different ways, some more obvious than others. From what was said above, however, it should be fairly clear that Holy Saturday is the “Saturday of the Blessed Virgin” par excellence. As stated in #6 above, our Lady’s faith in her Son was unwavering, and it is almost as though she was the only one who kept the fullness of the faith on behalf of all of us, while the apostles all fled and went into hiding, and the women came to anoint a body that they should have known would not be there. Conspicuously absent in that group of women was the mother of Jesus.