A "Sacramental" calendar

7. The liturgical year is the celebration, during the solar year, of the entire mystery of Christ: "from the Incarnation and Birth till the Ascension as we await in joyful hope the return of our Lord". (Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 102.) The sacraments, in their turn, are "sacred signs", "ordered to the sanctification of men, to the building up of the Body of Christ, and this give glory to God". (Ibid., 59.) By these means, (and they always have a reference to the salvific mystery of Christ), the disciple is configured to his Master. For this reason, in the "Calendar of the Holy Year 2000", one finds plans for the solemn celebration of all seven sacraments: Baptism of infants (9 January); Baptism of adults, Confirmation and Eucharist are to take place at the Easter Vigil (23 April); Penance on the Tuesday of Holy Week (18 April) and in the penance service proper to the Jubilee itself; the Anointing of the Sick on the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes (11 February), the "Day for the Sick"; Holy Orders on the Solemnity of Epiphany (6 January) for episcopal ordination and the Fourth Sunday of Easter (14 May) for priestly; Holy Matrimony on the Twenty Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (15 October), at the time of the "Jubilee of Families".

In this way, the "Year of the Great Jubilee" is seen as a year in which the faithful, fully oriented towards the Father, through the Son in the Spirit, will participate, with full faith and renewed zeal, in the celebration of the sacraments, inexhaustible sources of grace and salvation.