Enter the great season after Pentecost with Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Volume 10 of Dom Prosper Guéranger’s monumental The Liturgical Year begins the long season known traditionally as Time After Pentecost, when the Church turns from the historical sequence of Christ’s earthly mysteries toward the continued work of the Holy Ghost in the Church and in the Christian soul.

Dom Guéranger begins by explaining the history, mystery, and spiritual purpose of this season. Having followed Christ from Advent through His Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, the faithful now enter a period devoted especially to growth in the Christian life and deeper contemplation of the truths of the Faith.

This first volume of Time After Pentecost is particularly rich, opening with three of the Church’s great doctrinal and devotional feasts:

• Trinity Sunday, honoring the central mystery of the Christian Faith: one God in three Divine Persons

• Corpus Christi, celebrating the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist

• The Sacred Heart of Jesus, contemplating the divine love of Christ for mankind

• The Octaves and liturgical days surrounding these great feasts

• Morning and evening prayers for the season

• Guidance for assisting at Mass and receiving Holy Communion

• The traditional Offices of Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline

• Commentary on the Sunday and weekday liturgies of the early weeks after Pentecost

Dom Guéranger gives these opening feasts special attention because they summarize much of what the Church has contemplated throughout the first half of the liturgical year.

Trinity Sunday directs the faithful toward the mystery of God Himself—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—revealed through the work of redemption.

Corpus Christi turns toward the Eucharist, in which Christ remains sacramentally present with His Church and continues to nourish the faithful with His own Body and Blood.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus then draws the reader into contemplation of the love that lies behind the entire work of salvation: the love of the Incarnate Word for fallen mankind.

Dom Guéranger describes these feasts as profound doctrinal teachings that follow naturally after Pentecost, bringing together the great truths revealed throughout the preceding seasons of the year.

Throughout the volume, he combines Scripture, Catholic theology, Church history, ancient prayers, hymns, and detailed liturgical commentary to reveal how the Church uses her worship to form the Christian soul.

Time After Pentecost may appear quieter than Advent, Lent, or Easter, but Dom Guéranger shows that it has a distinctive purpose of its own: the mysteries already celebrated must now take root and bear fruit in the life of the faithful.

Volume 10: Time After Pentecost I is an especially valuable companion for Catholics who want to deepen their understanding of Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart while beginning the second great portion of the Church’s liturgical year.

By: Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.
Translated by: Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.
Series: The Liturgical Year, Volume 10 of 15
Season: Time After Pentecost — Book I
Primary Feasts: Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi & Sacred Heart