Day 15 #formationFOUNDATIONS | Liturgical Seasons

Today is the fifteenth day of our #formationFOUNDATIONS series. This is our fourth and final week! In case you're new here, you can read more about this series or start from the beginning at SacredOrdinaryDays.com/FF. Our goal for this series is to help you...

• LEARN about different spiritual practices that you can adopt for your own walk. You will learn how to make the most of your Sacred Ordinary Days planner or the FREE Essentials Workbook you got when you joined our newsletter list, which has all the most essential pages from the planner that we don't want anyone to miss out on.
• PRACTICE these things on a daily, weekly, seasonally and yearly schedule. You will be able to lay (or bolster up) a strong spiritual formation foundation by clearing the space for your new spiritual practices to deepen.
• SHARE your experience with people who speak the same language. You'll get to know the other members of our community, who are some of the wisest, most interesting, super fun, and most real people I know by following along on Instagram or Facebook or inside Common House, our ecumenical online community.

Day 15 | Liturgical Seasons

It's been so much fun to explore practices and rhythms you might incorporate into your intentional spiritual formation. The ones we've shared have been life-changing for us. And, following the liturgical year is one of the most transformative, because it allows you to follow the life of Christ. In its cyclical rhythm, we are invited to enter the movement of His life on a yearly basis.  It's also one of the easiest, because there are six major seasons each year, so you've got plenty of time to ruminate on each.

While most Christians are familiar with Christmas and Easter, which are times of celebrating Christ's birth and resurrection from death, and many are familiar with Advent, Lent, and Holy Week, all of which are considered to be times of preparation, some don’t realize there are actually six seasons in the Christian calendar. Christmas, Easter, Advent, and Lent mark the first four, and Epiphany and the season after Pentecost round out the six as seasons known as Ordinary Time.

Certain denominations and traditions are considered liturgical and others aren't, but this reordering of time around six different seasons of the church year is not meant to be just for some of us who follow Jesus. It is an invitation extended to all of us to align our lives with the life of Christ. The liturgical year helps us walk through the seasons of our lives in tune with the seasons of Christ's life, growing as we go. 

In the planner, we help you notice the liturgical seasons. At the top of every page, we remind you what season we are in. As each new season begins, we addd in a few pages of description, seasonal Scripture, questions to ponder, practices to consider, Holy Days, and space for you to reflect on the season as well as to do an examen of the season. As you build this seasonal rhythm from year to year, you will have a seasonal reflection to look back on as you prepare to enter the season again in a new year. 

Now it is your turn: take a few minutes and reflect on your experience of the liturgical year. Is is something that you are familiar with? Does your church notice it in some way, either in words or in the changing of the altar color? How can you introduce or further the use of the liturgical year to your practice in some way?

Head over to Instagram or Facebook and share your reflection or a photo of how you represent the liturgical season at home using #formationFOUNDATIONS and tag us @sacredordinarydays, please! Or, join the conversation inside Common House, our ecumenical online community.

 
Join us this week as we focus on seasonal practices. You can always see the latest blog post in the series at sacredordinarydays.com/FF when it's live. So, check there each day for the latest!