Celebrating the Old Testament?

[Dumb_Ox_Girl]

Hi everyone

This is my first post here, and I’m relatively new to the faith, so please excuse this question if it comes across as silly or poorly phrased. Also, I am not sure if I’m posting in the correct sub-forum.

Jewish tradition is grounded in the Old Testament, while Christians emphasize the New Testament. I get that. But we as Catholics do of course worship the very same G-d, and have faith in the events, of the OT. So why do we not have liturgical celebrations on our calendar, or feast days, related to the OT?

Why are there no feast days for the holy Patriarchs and Prophets such as Moses for example? I’ve read that because little evidence survived to testify about their lives, canonization of Old Testament individuals is somewhat impossible; but surely we could still have days to honour them and the role they played, especially in respect of their human lineage eventually leading to Christ? We know very little of a martyr like St Agatha, but yet we celebrate her feast day, so the aforementioned does not seem a good reason to me?

What about days to celebrate creation by God, or the Exodus, etc?

Any help in answering this would be much appreciated as it has been bugging me recently.

 

[Alfonsus]

Actually, we do celebrate memorials and feast of Old Testament figures.
In the Roman Martyrologium, we have days where Old Testament figures are commemorated in the Latin Rite, such as Moses, Elijah (solemnity for the Carmelites), and many other figures.

 

[Prie_dieu]

It should be born in mind that our liturgy is thoroughly grounded in the Old Testament. The Canonical Hours of the Church which are chiefly composed of the 150 Psalms. Since the Divine Office is liturgy it is also the public prayer of the Church of which the Mass is the crowning jewel.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!
Prie-Dieu.

 

[EphelDuath]

Jewish tradition is grounded in the Old Testament, while Christians emphasize the New Testament. I get that. But we as Catholics do of course worship the very same G-d, and have faith in the events, of the OT. So why do we not have liturgical celebrations on our calendar, or feast days, related to the OT?

Christians have always celebrated Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, since it is most appropriate to celebrate the Eucharist on the day that Christ rose.

Christ was crucified the day before the Passover according to the Gospel of St. John, hence the date of the Holy Triduum is based around the Jewish Passover (though the Latin rite adopted the Gregorian calendar where Orthodox Jews did not, so the dates do not line up with each other in modern times).

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was suppressed since Good Friday is the most holy day of reparations to the crucified Son of God. Hebrews 9:11-12 compares Jesus to the sacrificial lamb in the Temple’s Holy of Holies. Rosh Hashanah was suppressed because its date was fundamentally connected to the Day of Atonement.

My understanding is that Hanukkah was never a significant Jewish celebration because 1 & 2 Maccabees aren’t considered part of the Hebrew Bible by Orthodox Jews. The only reason in modern times it’s so important is because Jews wanted a Winter gift-giving celebration to parallel Christmas.

Shauvot is the same as Pentecost, though its dating is different for Christians; instead of keeping it as a harvest festival, it’s always celebrated 10 days after the Ascension of Christ, since that was the time table given in the Book of Acts.

Couldn’t tell you why Christians don’t celebrate Sukkot, Omer, or Purim.

 

[Cranch]

Welcome to CAF Dumb_Ox_Girl!

In the Extraordinary Form Mass there is a portion of the Prayers after Consecration I particularly like when the priest recounts the foreshadowing of the holy sacrifice of the altar in the sacrifices of Old Testament figures by praying silently (in Latin) of the consecrated gifts:

Deign to look upon them with a favorable and gracious countenance, and to accept them as Thou didst accept the offerings of Thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham, and that which Thy high priest Melchisedech offered up to Thee, a holy Sacrifice, an immaculate Victim.

This same prayer is contained in Eucharistic Prayer I in the Ordinary Form Mass. Through this prayer I feel a connection across millennia to Old Testament times and a shared concern for offering to God what is His.