Each of the feasts and seasons of the church year is a time of grace. How do we engage with the liturgical cycle? One of our projects modeled a means of engagement that begins in childhood, with a liturgical arts camp. Another built on congregation members’ strong interest in encouraging sustainable living. After framing some key issues of the liturgical year theologically and pastorally, we gave special consideration to these two projects—asking both how we might inform and enhance the work of these congregations, and how their work might enliven and challenge our own praxis. Rita Ferrone, who convened this session, writes,
“One of my greatest joys is working with people who want to enrich their appreciation of the liturgy, helping them to discover and own the riches we share as a praying church. The liturgy opens up a new world for many who are seeking—seeking God, seeking peace, seeking meaning in life. Liturgy is a hopeful thing. It’s grounded in God’s action, past and present, and points beyond our struggles to a future in which God will be all in all. I’d like to share with you a passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah. It’s from Second Isaiah, which was written during the Exile and contains many prophecies of consolation for the suffering people of Israel who are far away from their homeland. In this passage, from chapter 46, the people are watching a procession of those going into exile. In this procession, idols are being carried on the shoulders of people and beasts of burden. Isaiah tells us the names of the idols too: Bel and Nebo. These handmade ‘gods’ are an abomination to those who put their faith in the God of Israel. The prophetic word of God, spoken through Isaiah, turns this image around. Instead of the weary people carrying their ‘god’ as their burden, for the faithful of Israel it is their God who carries them. It is God who has carried, and will carry them. ‘From your infancy to your old age / When your hair is gray / It is I… who will carry you to safety.’ If you had to go back over the events of your life, you would surely find many ways in which God has carried you, through people, through prayer and the sacraments, through family and community. One of the ways, I firmly believe, in which the Lord carries us is by the feasts and fasts, the celebrations and seasons of the liturgical year. Ready or not, Christmas comes. Whether or not we are in the mood to repent, Lent comes. Joyful or sorrowing, Easter breaks upon us. And somehow a common note is sounded through the cacophony of life – the call to discipleship, the mystery of the incarnation, the dying and rising of the Lord. Our own individual lives become part of something greater: a community of faith living life, by the grace of God, together.
In this session, we talked about things to do in observing feasts and fasts, and there are many things to do. But if what we do to celebrate the liturgical year becomes just another ‘thing to do’ it runs the risk of becoming ‘dead things,’ burdens on our shoulders. So I’d like to leave you with this thought: the church year, the annual cycle of celebration and prayer is not just another thing to do. It’s a way to be, and a gift from God to us.”
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