A couple weeks ago, I shared the challenge I have with keeping the liturgical calendar primary. It may seem like such a silly thing to some, but it is a way that I keep my attention, not on the world as a timeless and predictably rigid place, but as God’s creation.
This week, I want to share some of the ways I keep the church calendar first. And it really begins with shifting the particular stuff we take for granted about our calendared lives.
First is in the calendar itself. I’ve started using a journal called Sacred Ordinary Days. Rather than break the year into months, it is ordered by liturgical seasons. Each one is marked with time for reflection and planning. It is a beautiful journal and serves well to focus the mind and heart around the shape of the seasons.
The other thing I do is to celebrate Advent 1 like it is New Year’s Day. I make a show of it and hype it like New Year’s in good fun, but I always do it with the intention of reminding you and myself that we have begun a new year together. And all the things we do at New Year’s, including resolutions and reflections become quite appropriate to the moment.
As we rejoice this week in hope and peace at the advent of our Lord, let us consider the new beginnings, the opportune changes, the dreams that are being fulfilled. And let us name all these lovely could-bes as anticipations of new joy in this new year.