Liturgical Year Archives

The seasons and holy days of the Liturgical Year within the Christian Church offer a framework for spiritual formation and an invitation to journey with intention year after year. Find posts on the liturgical year below, explore specific seasons on the resources page, and sign up here to receive updates on new posts directly in your inbox.

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1|E2: Advent

Did you listen to the first episode of the Sacred Ordinary Days podcast last week?

After last week’s introductory episode, we’re ready to dig in. This week we’re starting right where we are with the season of Advent—the first season of the liturgical year—and are sharing favorite themes and practices as we embrace the invitations of the current liturgical season and prepare for Christmas, the season to come.

Listen/download below or through iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and catch up on past episodes here. And if you like what you hear, would you mind sharing it on social media and leaving a review? It helps spread the word! Here’s how to leave a review on iTunes.

I’ve been hinting at it for a few weeks now and the day has finally come! The Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast is here—just in time for the season of Advent and the new liturgical year.

I was so excited when Jenn Giles Kemper of sacredordinarydays.com invited me to join her in her new podcasting venture. It seems like everyone is podcasting these days, and while I was curious about what that might look like for me, starting one myself seemed like a bit of a stretch. However, recording conversations with a dear friend and colleague about spiritual formation and the spiritual journey? I’m in!

Given our shared interest in the liturgical seasons and our desire to share its gifts with others (I’ve recently released my Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar and Jenn is the creator of the Sacred Ordinary Days liturgical day planner), this season we’ll be focusing on the Liturgical Calendar with conversations about each liturgical season in real time.

You can listen to our introductory conversation below, and Advent and Christmas won’t be far behind! You can also subscribe to the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast in iTunes or your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss a thing. (And while you’re there, leave a review, will you? It helps spread the word.)

The Beginning of Advent: What’s Stirring Within You?

Today marks the first day of Advent and a new cycle of the liturgical year in the Church. Since I’ve just released my Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar (take a peek at the Advent page above), I thought this would be a great opportunity to share with you an excerpt from the calendar on the season of Advent. Blessings to you as you enter this season of waiting and longing, keeping vigil as hope draws near.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the season of Advent comes at a time when the earth is dark and dormant.

The last leaves are falling from autumn’s colorful trees as the days grow colder and the nights grow longer, readying the earth and its creatures for a season of stillness and hibernation. This growing darkness pulls us inside our homes as well as inside ourselves, inviting us to examine our places of darkness and longing and to wait with faithfulness, keeping vigil as we hold out hope for the light.

This is where the Church calendar begins—not with the certainty and fulfillment sung by the angels at Christmas time, but rather with the strain that such deep yearning brings. Like Mary pregnant with the Christ child, we start the year not with the joy and relief that comes with birth but in the womb—the mysterious place in which hope is conceived and new life is formed.

It’s here! The Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar is now available in the (new!) Journey Shop.

I’ve been working on the Sacred Seasons liturgical calendar since the beginning of summer, and more specifically since listening to Rob Bell’s interview with one of my all-time favorite journey guides and spiritual midwives, Elizabeth Gilbert (download it now and listen on repeat—you won’t regret it). They were exploring the topic of Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, and something they said in the interview grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go when it comes to creativity: create the thing you can’t help but create.

It’s the middle of August, and as summer winds down for many of us it’s time to put the suitcases away, harvest what remains of summer’s bounty, finish our summer reading, and return to everyday routines.

It’s all just so…ordinary.

We are, in fact, in the middle of Ordinary Time—the season in the Church’s liturgical calendar that lies between the feast of Pentecost and the season of Advent (some churches recognize two seasons of Ordinary Time—Ordinary Time I between Christmastide and Lent and Ordinary Time II between Eastertide and Advent). It’s a long season, too—the longest, in fact. It seems fitting, though, because most of our days are simply ordinary—we wake up, shower, go to work, care for families, run errands, make meals, go to sleep…and do it all over again.

There’s no invitation to keep vigil, like with Advent, or to fast, as with Lent. There’s no specific call to celebrate, as with Christmas or Easter. And, oftentimes there’s no great burst of insight or inspiration, as marked by the Feasts of Epiphany and Pentecost.

But it’s also in the everyday that life happens—challenges presented, lessons learned, obstacles overcome—each new occurrence taking us beyond our edges and presenting the opportunity for more growth. If Ordinary Time has an invitation, it’s to stay present to these elements of daily life, engaging them with intention and looking for the Sacred hidden within. What so often seems ordinary then has the power to become extraordinary.

Here are 10 practices to make Ordinary Time extraordinary:

1. Turn a mundane task into a time of prayer

2. Go on a personal retreat

3. Make something (How about daily bread?)

4. Begin a Sabbath practice

5. Spend time in nature

6. Settle in with a book that has the power to transform (I have a few suggestions)

7. Read the Bible in a new way

8. Live like a pilgrim in everyday life

9. Cultivate a Morning Ritual

10. In line with our current Journey Book Club selection, get rid of objects (and commitments) in your life that don’t spark joy (more on that next week!)

GO FURTHER…

Which of your own spiritual practices help make Ordinary Time extraordinary?

PS: How liturgy guides you on a daily journey (+ a great list of resources!)

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Click on a path below to find your direction and discover practices to guide you along the way.
the pilgrim at home

the pilgrim abroad

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1|E2: Advent

Did you listen to the first episode of the Sacred Ordinary Days podcast last week?

Introducing the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast! Listen Now…

I’ve been hinting at it for a few weeks now and the day has finally come! The Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast is here—just in time for the season of Advent and the new liturgical year.

The Beginning of Advent: What’s Stirring Within You?

In the Northern Hemisphere, the season of Advent comes at a time when the earth is dark and dormant.

It’s Here! The Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar (+ an all-new journey shop!)

It’s here! The Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar is now available in the (new!) Journey Shop.

10 Practices to Make Ordinary Time Extraordinary

It’s the middle of August, and as summer winds down for many of us it’s time to put the suitcases away, harvest what remains of summer’s bounty, finish our summer reading, and return to everyday routines.

GO FURTHER…

EXPLORE

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