2023 Liturgical Calendar is at this link.
Having your own copy of the new year’s Liturgical Calendar adds an important component to engage your Catholic faith. Why is that?
In the Catholic Church, our time is marked by the life of Christ, so our calendar intimately reflects that connection. That is why our New Year starts with the first Sunday of Advent as we officially mark His coming. This year Advent falls on Sunday, November 28, 2021 in the Roman Catholic calendar. Since liturgical calendars are the clockwork mechanism of the life of the Church, it makes sense to have one to help keep you properly engaged. With so many seasons, solemnities, feast days, celebrations, color changes and the addition of obligatory days of attending Mass beyond Sunday, a good liturgical calendar can keep you up on track. Of course, digital calendars are a convenient resource in the palm of our hands. Let’s take a look at what the digital Catholic world offers!
Screenshot from Universalis app
For your consideration, we list two types of formats of Liturgical Roman Catholic Calendars:
- regular digital calendar to add to your device’s calendar
- digital calendar that’s built within an App on your device
If you’re not a Roman Catholic but of another Rite, please see iCal below. A note of caution: 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. Errors are common. It is a good idea to double-check with the official liturgical calendar of your country (Here’s the USA’s). But remember that your diocese will have variations as well. Both Ordinary and Extraordinary (traditional 1962) Roman Calendars are included in our listing. If you just want to add a Roman Catholic Liturgical calendar (biased to United States of America) to your Google or iCal calendar, click one of these links courtesy of Universalis web site: Google Calendar iCal CalendarTo download from iCal…Create a new calendar (very important), now import the above iCal Calendar and then add that calendar to your new one. 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).
e-Ordo ($21.95/year) This is an electronic Roman Catholic Liturgical calendar for the United States that can be imported into most digital calendars and platforms (PC, Mac, smartphones, and tablets) delivered via .zip file. Just download, extract the files, and import to your calendar application of choice. Purchase direct from their web site. English language. As with a printed Ordo, you get: • proper liturgical 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 Catholic Calendars at iCal share (free annual subscription). If your calendar app supports iCal, these calendars will import by superimposing their events into your calendar. Go to their web site linked above and choose the category you’re interested in or just type “Catholic” in search. Examples of what you will find: liturgical calendars for different Catholic Rites and for various religious orders. Roman Catholic Calendars include a light version 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. Below are links to two popular U.S. Calendars from iCal for your convenience. 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.
1962 Traditional General Roman Calendar Roman Catholic Calendar 1962 for iCal (free subscription) The calendar pictured depicts the General Roman Calendar as it was in 1962, following the reforms that Pope John XXIII introduced with his motto proprio Rubricarum instructor of 23 July 1960. The 1962 edition of the Roman Missal was authorized as an “extraordinary form of the Roman Rite” by the 7 July 2007 motto proprio Summorum Pontifical of Pope Benedict XVI. We are grateful to a Twitter poster for passing this
Apps containing Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar
Finally… The Proper Calendar for the Roman Rite in the United States of America in pdf format from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is at this link. Spanish liturgical titles for seasons and Proper of Saints along with patronal feasts for various South American countries are listed. In the United States, our calendar has been updated in the Roman Rite to include the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and the Optional Memorials of Saint Gregory of Narek, Saint John of Avila, and Saint Hildegard of Bingen.