“To be Catholic is to have a faith that marks our hours, counts our days, and measures our months and seasons.” In his book, The Feasts: How the Church Year Forms Us as Catholics, Cardinal Donald Wuerl (Washington, DC) writes of the significance of the many seasons and celebrations in course of a year which Catholics observe. “Our liturgical calendar is marked by special days – feasts – which are all celebrations of Jesus Christ,” he says, “reminding us who we are as people of faith. These feasts form a kind of catechism, a rich depiction of Jesus’ life which represents the fullness of creation and redemption.” That’s a terrific way to look at our liturgical calendar, isn’t it?
The start of a new liturgical year in the Roman Catholic calendar is always the first Sunday of Advent which this year falls on November 29. If you’d like a liturgical calendar to help you engage in the life of the Church a little bit more, take a look at what the digital Catholic world offers!
Digital Catholic Calendars
As with all liturgical calendars, many variations unique to your country/diocese may not be taken into account in these digital versions. Updates may lag. It is a good idea to double-check with the official liturgical calendar of your country/diocese.
Both Ordinary and Extraordinary (traditional 1962) Roman Calendars are included in our listing.
Digital Liturgical Calendars
If you just want to add a Roman Catholic Liturgical calendar (biased to America) to your Google or iCal calendar, click one of these links courtesy of Universalis web site:
The year’s liturgical calendar will automatically download and should automatically open your device’s calendar with a message verifying you want to download the year’s calendar. Approve this, and the calendar will automatically load. On mobile devices, you will be shown each day as an “event” to load. Approve all, and the entire year’s calendar of events loads. Within the calendar “event” each day, a link is provided for you to the Universalis web site which you can open to see the color of the day and other specific information for the day (linked in that page).
• colors
• seasons
• feasts, solemnities, memorials and optional memorials
• all readings and alternative readings are listed for every day of the week
• information about the Liturgy of the Hours.
• the designation as to whether or not the Creed and/or the Gloria are said.
You can edit local variants to the universal liturgical calendar after it is imported.
Variety of Calendars at iCal share (free annual subscriptions) to a variety of calendars that superimpose in your iCal program. Go to their web site and choose the category you’re interested in on the left-hand-column. I chose “religion” and scrolled to “Catholic” to find Roman Catholic Calendar (below). Examples of what you will find: a calendar for Carmelite feast days, a light version of the Roman Catholic Calendar that only includes Sundays, major feasts and solemnities, and a Traditional Roman Catholic Calendar according to the 1962 Missal for both Mass and the Breviary. You have to re-subscribe each year by going back to the site and downloading the next year’s calendar.
Roman Catholic Calendar for iCal–(free annual subscription) A Roman Catholic calendar of feast days, memorials, solemnities and holy days of obligation (United States). Includes links to find out more about saints and feast days of the Church. Very easy to download and install especially if you use iCloud. iCal share offers free subscriptions to a variety of calendars that superimpose in your iCal program. Go to their web site and choose the category you’re interested in on the left-hand-column. I chose “religion” and scrolled to “Catholic” to find this calendar. You have to re-subscribe each year by going back to the site and downloading the next year’s calendar.
Apps containing Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar
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Finally…
If you’re looking for an old-schoolCatholic calendar on steroids, may we recommend the eagerly-awaited calendar from Papastronsay.