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Seasonal Spirituality:

How Does the Church Year Illumine our Relationship with God?

From the darkness of the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere to the brightness of the summer’s extended daylight, to the equal days and nights of spring and fall, the light and darkness of our days and nights brings with it the observance and celebration of the liturgical year. Called the "Church Year" or the "Year of Grace" this particular calendar guides us in communion with the life of Christ and the saints.

In her recent writing, To Everything A Season: The Spirituality of Time, Bonnie Thurston reflects on time as both gift and challenge. As we move through the seasons of the year, we can hurry and miss some of the beauty of the events and people of our lives, or we can welcome each moment as gift and opportunity to know more fully the Creator of time, our God. Using the Liturgical Year as our guide, we take the time to learn about ourselves, about one another and about our God.

The teacher writes, "for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…" (Ecclesiastes 3: 1). We begin the movement of the liturgical year with the season of the Incarnation: "but when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son…" (Galatians 4:4a) Throughout the days of Advent to Christmas and Epiphany, the prayer of the Church calls us to patient expectation, preparation, celebration and wonder. How can our spiritual life be enhanced as we observe the sacred time of this mystery of the Incarnation? The spiritual disciplines of silent sitting, meditation and patient waiting provide the opportunity for rest, for conversation with God and for simple listening as a way to enter into the celebration of this great feast. In contrast to the frenzied preparation that often accompanies this time of year, a time of paced preparation laced with sung or spoken words of the prayer of the Church is blessing and communion instead of discouragement and distance. "God of power and mercy, open our hearts in welcome. Remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy, so that we may share his wisdom and become one with him when he comes in glory…" (Opening Prayer, Second Sunday of Advent)

The coming of Christ in glory is celebrated in the Christmas and Epiphany days before the liturgical calendar begins the counted time called "Ordinary." Following the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we begin the first of thirty-four "weeks of the year." Throughout these weeks interrupted by the Great Ninety Days of Lent-Easter-Pentecost, we mark time in the life of Jesus given in the Gospel stories. We listen to familiar accounts of the ways in which Jesus challenges unjust systems of relationship, of the ways he teaches us to welcome the stranger, to think beyond our own needs to those of others, to feed the hungry, to serve the least among us, to heal, to help, and also to go off in to the desert to pray and to prepare for ministry. Gospel stories repeated in the three-year cycle invite us to respond in new ways to ordinary relationships with their unspoken expectations and familiar routines. The spiritual discipline of intercessory prayer can become the "routine" of this Ordinary Time as we pray for ourselves and for one another throughout this time of the year.

The Lent, Easter, Pentecost season brings with it the "built in" time of retreat to nurture our spiritual life. Though we may not enjoy the luxury of retreat away from our daily responsibilities, the three-pronged Lenten motto of prayer, penance and alms-giving guides us to the time of Holy Week and Easter with a new outlook on our relationship with God and our relationship with others. Sometimes it seems like the Lenten prayer, sacrifice and giving didn’t make a difference and we come to Palm Sunday still holding grudges, still blaming others, still apparently no closer to Christ in his passion and death and we wonder how we came through Lent unscathed! The prayer of the Church is the beacon that illumines the Lenten way and offers hope: "…open our hearts to the voice of your Word and free us from the original darkness that shadows our vision." (Opening Prayer, Second Sunday of Lent)

Now we enter the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. These are not among the obligatory Holy Days of the church, but they are for us the holiest. We come to the heart of the story of our life in Christ. By his life, the giving of himself at the Last Supper, by his death, the giving of himself to crucifixion, by his resurrection, the giving of his life in glorious eternity, we are redeemed and given new life in him. What suffering, death and risings will we experience in this communion living what we believe and welcoming God’s strength. The prayer of the Easter-Pentecost time is filled with the promise of resurrection and of the coming of the Spirit, the one who will be with us on the journey. "…let the Spirit you sent on your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe." (Opening Prayer for Pentecost Sunday)

Our spiritual journey is individual and distinct. We each stand at a unique spot on that great continuum of God’s love, but we do not journey in isolation. We are entrusted with physical life from our parents and we are entrusted with the spiritual life by our Baptism in Christ. There are many ways in which that spiritual life is fed and watered. Let the Liturgical Year, the Year of Grace be one of those ways. It is close at hand.

Sister Lois Paha, OP, an Adrian Dominican Sister, has been the Worship Office Director for the Diocese of Austin, Texas, since September 1989. She also teaches in the diocese’s Catholic Adult Formation Program. Sister Lois previously ministered as an elementary educator, principal, vocation director and lay ministry coordinator.
This article appeared in the Fall 2002 edition of "Voices in Mission and Ministry," an Adrian Dominican Publication.

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