Formation Foundations ·

Day 2 #formationFOUNDATIONS | Get to Know the Liturgical Year

Today's the second day of our #formationFOUNDATIONS series. In case you're new here, you can read more about this series or start it 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, and seasonal basis. 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.


WEEK 1 | INTRODUCTIONS 

DAY 2 | Get to Know the Liturgical Year

 

This blog post is for you if you're asking (or being asked) things like...

  • What is the liturgical year? What does it have to do with me?
  • What's the difference between the Church calendar, the Christian calendar, and the liturgical calendar?
  • Isn't the liturgical year only for (insert Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, or Orthodox here) Christians?
  • So, beyond Sunday, what does the liturgical year have to do with my life?
  • Where do I start if I'm ready to learn about the liturgical calendar?


The Liturgical Calendar is the reason that Sacred Ordinary Days started in the first place. I first really noticed it thanks to Lauren Winner's memoir, Girl Meets God. You know that already if you've read my welcome letter in the planner or the Essentials Workbook. Winner’s memoir is structured according to the liturgical year, and reading along felt like being invited into a new ordering of time. 

And so it is a new, old ordering of time. This time marked by the life of Jesus has been so beautifully dis-orienting and re-orienting for me, I wanted to share it with people who might otherwise miss out on it or miss out on its depth. So, after waiting over 10 years for someone else to make a day planner based on the liturgical year that could help me learn and live into this re-ordered time, I finally made it. 

All Christians are familiar with Christmas and Easter, times of celebrating Christ's birth and resurrection from death. Many will also be vaguely familiar with Advent and Lent, which are times of preparation. But, many don’t realize that there are actually six seasons in the Christian calendar, including Christmas and Easter, which are much more than just one day each.  Epiphany and the season after Pentecost round out the six. While certain denominations and traditions are considered "liturgical," and others aren't, this re-ordered time is not 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. 

Each year begins with the season of Advent (usually at the end of November or beginning of December every year) which is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. We remember the anticipation and longing for a Savior and the birth of the baby and the whole church joins in the longing for Jesus' return in the second coming. Then comes the season of Christmas when we celebrate Jesus’ birth and arrival. Following Christmas is Epiphany and what some traditions call the first season of Ordinary Time when we celebrate that Jesus became human and walked among us. This is also the season when we recognize Jesus’ public ministry. Next comes the season of Lent, a somber season as we reflect on Jesus’ journey to the cross and the weight of his sacrifice in death. The season of Easter brings hope and praise as we celebrate Jesus’ victory in defeating death and raising to life. Finally, the season after Pentecost and the second season of Ordinary Time usher us into a season of recognizing that the Holy Spirit has come and is working in the life of the church, even after Jesus’s time on earth. You can see how these season’s relate to each other by studying the calendar below (also found at the beginning of your planner.)

We have found that by orienting our life toward Jesus, we are taught to prepare, welcome, celebrate, teach, be present, grieve, hope, be joyful, listen, and build the kingdom on earth. We follow a model for what it means to be fully human, fully faithful.

 

 

Now it's your turn.

Head over to Instagram or Facebook and share your introduction post using #formationfoundations and tag us @sacredordinarydays, please! Or, join the conversation inside Common House, our ecumenical online community.

Tell us:

      • How familiar are you with the Liturgical Year?
      • What are you most excited or nervous about in orienting your life to Christ's life in this way?
         

Psst...tomorrow we'll be introducing the lectionary. We'll always share the latest blog post in the series at sacredordinarydays.com/FF when it's live. So, check there each day for the latest!

If you'd like to use the planner alongside us, you can order one today or get August for $4. You might even already have a planner, either the new Academic year or the previous Liturgical year. If not, today's the day to order yours since they start today on August 1st!

 

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