Peter J. Elliott > Quotes

“Choosing the “right” times to celebrate or fast was important to our forebears in the faith. They regarded the calendar itself as a way of holding onto and passing on the apostolic tradition. Sacred time offered them a kind of “orthopraxis” that sustained their orthodoxy. 15.   This distant debate reminds us that we may fail to appreciate the power and precision of memory in the ancient world. This failure is only too evident in those scriptural critics who are sceptical about the historical roots of our faith, above all the historicity of events recorded in the Gospels. But ours is a historical religion, and the historical basis of Christianity is reflected in the early developments of the sacred calendar that became our liturgical year. The first Christians knew what some of us tend to forget, that Christianity stands or falls on the reality of specific events that occurred in the first century.”
― Peter J. Elliott, Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year: According to the Modern Roman Rite