There are many beautiful blogs, books, and groups with specific tips for celebrating the church year, but they can easily become fertile ground for overwhelm, comparison, and indecision. Take it from me, I’ve been flustered wondering how to curate the best, most robust options for prayers, meals, decor, and all the rest. I quickly realized…
One of my favorite topics of late is seasonality, including liturgical celebrations throughout the year. The liturgical year is an expression of sacred time that shepherds me as my faith deepens and evolves. My daughter’s increasing curiosity for books, art, and household rhythms makes it even more interesting to me as I share these traditions…
During our years spent in New England, I was continually impressed with the region’s experience of fall. The two other places I called home before that time, Alaska and Oklahoma, were not well-known for their autumn. In fact, many of their seasons blurred together into prolonged stints of cold or hot, respectively. As a novice…
I became a student of the liturgical year alongside the ten or so little faces of a Sunday school class. As the church intern, I was new to liturgy, not to mention the church year. I had no prior knowledge of the church year or what a perpetual calendar looked like. I only saw a…
Symbolized by a fiery red, Pentecost is the liturgical festival celebrating the presence of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-31. In this passage, tongues of fire appear above the heads of the disciples and they begin to speak in different languages. Peter references the prophecies of Joel and quickly identifies this mysterious moment as an…
A couple days a week I get some time for a walk by myself in the early morning light. These half-hour loops around our neighborhood are quiet, and recently, fairly crisp as we reach mid-winter. I resist the urge to turn on music or an audiobook. I just walk and notice whatever is around me….