On the Road to Emmaus » Christian Year

Practical Suggestions for Celebrating the Church Year

Richard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:14:08 +0000

If you’re like me, celebrating Advent may conjure up childhood memories of those peculiar “Advent Calendars” where you pop out a piece of chocolate each day as Christmas nears. Suffice to say, not all approaches to celebrating the Church Year are equally inspiring. Nevertheless, as I have come to seriously celebrate the Church Year, it has been one of the most compelling, inspiring and moving aspects of my spiritual life, both individual and communally.

As I have given an albeit brief explanation of the Church Year (I’ll use the terms “Church Calendar”, “Church Year” and “Christian Year” essentially interchangeably) elsewhere, I would like here to turn to practical suggestions on how to implement anywhere from a relatively simple to a full dress commemoration of the Church Year. My suggestions will be concerned with marking the primary seasons and principal feasts of the Church Year because there are many other commemorations which we need not get bogged down with at this point.

I should further note, that when I speak of “celebrating the Church Year,” I am mostly referring to means by which the formative themes of each Season and Feast can be shaped into our lives. In other words, I am primarily discussing the Church Year as spiritual formation and spiritual discipline. I am sure there is lots of advice that could be given for holiday-coordinated decorating, baking, party ideas, etc. I am not concerned with that here (though by all means – bring on the baked goods!!). The advice which follows centers on how our spiritual lives can be given definitive shape through the Church Year, and thus formed around and transformed by the unfolding story of God’s redemptive acts in and through the Messiah. It follows that my suggestions will generally draw from the Church’s liturgical tradition, which has always centered around the Church Year, and has developed quite a wealth of material over the centuries. Additionally, the suggestions which follow are not specific to Advent or any one season, but are general in nature, applicable to all seasons of the Year.

I will also attempt to make each suggestion applicable for both individual and communal use.

1) Determine to follow the Church Year through to the end. This of course hardly seems like a practical suggestion for my first point. However, I would like to begin by advising a long term though strategy rather than short term. The power of the Church Year is in the entire sequence of Advent through Pentecost and commemorating the entire sequence of the central redemptive acts of God in the Messiah. So while “celebrating Advent” or “keeping Lent” can’t hurt, the full power of the Church Year is its unity, rather than parts in abstraction. Its further power is the cumulative effect of celebrating the entire cycle over a course of years such that the redemptive acts of God in the Messiah become the central overarching rhythm of our lives.

2) Follow the Readings in the Daily Office Lectionary (from the Book of Common Prayer). The lectionary has one OT reading, one NT epistle and one Gospel reading for each day. They generally follow entire books is sequence that have themes corresponding to the Church Year. Use them in your personal Bible reading or meditation times. They are generally short (10-12 verses) and could form the basis of prayer-reading (lectio-divina). Read them with others and discuss them. Discuss a whole weeks worth of readings and reflection with others once per week. I have made Daily Office Readings booklets by compiling the assigned texts for each season. They can be downloaded here. Alternately you can download just the Daily Office Lectionary and look up the passages in your own Bible - booklet / standard.

3) Sing hymns and songs that correspond to the season. Contrary to popular belief, Advent songs and Christmas songs are not the same. Christmas songs/carols are sung during the twelve days of Christmas. Advent songs and carols are sung during Advent. Hymnals of churches that don’t keep the Christian year may not make this distinction. However, if you pick up a hymnal from a more liturgical tradition, such as Anglican, Lutheran or Catholic, there will be a wealth of material for each season. Should you not happen to know many of the hymns, do a search on the internet and you can often find at least midi files that will play the song for you so you can learn it. Check out these sites for starters: http://hymnal.oremus.org; http://www.smallchurchmusic.com; http://hymntime.com/tch/

4) Pray the Book of Common Prayer “Collect” for each week. “Collect” is a fancy word for a prayer which frequently draws together (“collects”) themes of a given season or day in the Church Calendar. Use it daily either upon waking or before going to bed. Pray it with others before a meal. Pray it for people on your prayer list. For the Collects of the Church Year click here.

5) Pray/Sing the Psalms on a monthly (or bi-monthly) schedule using seasonal antiphons. “Antiphons” are short sentences of Scripture or traditional material that are used with Psalms or Canticles in order to give them a specific (often seasonal or Calendar-related) emphasis. To use them, they are simply prayed (sung) before and after the Psalm, or alternately as a refrain periodically throughout the Psalm, every few verses or so. I have compiled a set of seasonal antiphons from various sources (including the Prayer Book Office, the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, the Roman Breviary and elsewhere) for the entire book of Psalms that can be used with the Psalms in your BCP or Bible. They are arranged by season – so throughout Advent, each psalms will use the antiphon labeled “Advent,” during the 12 days of Christmas, the antiphon labeled “Christmas,” during the entire season of Easter, the antiphon labeled “Easter,” etc.

Seasonal Psalm Antiphon download links: booklet / standard.

Click here to download the monthly Psalm schedule.

6) Use a seasonal order for Midday Prayer or Compline (night-time prayer before bed). These are orders for prayer that are more simple than those for Morning and Evening Prayer. They are self-contained and require no flipping back and forth through different places in the prayer book. Unfortunately, the BCP orders for Midday Prayer and Compline have almost no seasonal variation, so I have borrowed from the liturgy of the Church of England and elsewhere to form these adaptations of the BCP orders with strong seasonal emphasis. These work well prayed alone or in groups. Download links:

Midday Prayer booklet – booklet / standard

Compline – booklet / standard

7) Begin praying the Daily Office, or at least Morning or Evening Prayer. Full details on how to do so can be found here. The office can be prayed alone or in groups. Consider praying it daily on your own and at one set time per week with others. I pray the Office daily on my own and once a week do a full sung Morning Prayer with some friends before the Sunday morning Eucharist.

8 ) If you already have been praying the Daily Office, consider using seasonal propers that add further seasonal emphasis to the flow of the Church Year. The “Proper” is the part of the liturgy which varies according to the day and/or season. These propers propose various hymns, psalms, canticles and antiphons for every Sunday of the year and for each feast. A seasonal propers booklet, largely gleaned from the unfortunately out-of-print Prayer Book Office can be downloaded here - booklet / standard

9) The Church of England has produced a book available on-line as a series of pamphlets titled “Times and Seasons” with various material for each season which could be used either as part of the Daily Office, or in other ways. They can be downloaded for free here.

10) Begin visiting a liturgical Church in the “catholic” tradition (i.e., Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Anglican), which follows the Church Year and incorporates its emphases into the liturgy. A directory of orthodox Anglican churches in North America can be found here. If not on a weekly basis, perhaps attend for special services throughout the year, like Christmas Eve, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, etc.

11) Organize a gathering of friends and family on either the day of or the eve of major feasts for a simple meal and an order for Evening Prayer, using seasonal material from some of the previous suggestions.

12) Pick up a copy of Robert Webber’s book “Ancient-Future Time.” It discusses each season and principle feast of the Church Year, highlighting the various themes for each.

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** Photo credit: tome213

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How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer

Richard — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:56:04 +0000

Part 1 – The Christian Year

Part 2 – Introducing the Book of Common Prayer

Part 3 – The Opening

Part 4 – The Psalms

Part 5 – The Readings

Part 6 – The Prayers

Part 7 – Making it Easy (in fact, brainless…)

Part 8 – Morning Prayer

Part 9 – The “Little” Offices (Midday and Compline)

Part 10 – Connecting with God and Feeling More Deeply when Praying the Office

Part 11 – Singing the Office

Part 11a – An Anglican Chant Tutorial

Part 12 – Adding Further Seasonal Variation

Resources to pray the Office:

For Starters (keeping it simple):

Daily Office from the BCP – printable booklet with the portions from the BCP that cover the main prayer services

Daily Office Lectionary – printable booklet with the schedule of all of the Scripture readings for the two-year schedule

Reading Booklets with full text readings from the Daily Office Lectionary

Schemes for Praying the Entire Psalter – schedule for singing the psalms either monthly, bi-monthly or weekly

Amazon link to the standard (cheapest) print version of the BCP in either red or black

More advanced material (for greater variation and celebration of the Church Year):

Adapted orders for the “Little Offices,” Midday Prayer and Compline (bed-time prayers) with strong seasonal emphases. These can either complement the offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, or could stand alone as a more simple way to pray (for example, upon waking and right before bed). Prayer During the Day is about a 10 to 15 minute prayer time, while Compline takes about five minutes or so.

Midday Prayer (Prayer During the Day) – booklet / standard

Compline – booklet / standard

Seasonal “proper” booklet – largely gleaned from the unfortunately out-of-print Prayer Book Office. The “Proper” is the part of the liturgy which varies according to the day and/or season. These propers propose various hymns, psalms, canticles and antiphons for every Sunday of the year and for each feast. These add further variation and richness by emphasizing the themes of each season. booklet / standard

Psalm Antiphons – “Antiphons” are short sentences of Scripture or traditional material that are used with Psalms or Canticles in order to give them a specific (often seasonal or Calendar-related) emphasis. To use them, they are simply prayed (sung) before and after the Psalm, or alternately as a refrain periodically throughout the Psalm, every few verses or so. I have compiled a set of seasonal antiphons from various sources (including the Prayer Book Office, the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, the Roman Breviary and elsewhere) for the entire book of Psalms that can be used with the Psalms in your BCP or Bible. They are arranged by season – so throughout Advent, each psalm will use the antiphon labeled “Advent,” during the 12 days of Christmas, the antiphon labeled “Christmas,” during the entire season of Easter, the antiphon labeled “Easter,” etc. booklet / standard.

Psalms with Antiphons – Part 1 (Psalms 1-55) booklet / standard

Part 2 (Psalms 56-104) booklet / standard

Part 3 (Psalms 105-150) booklet / standard

How to Pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer (Part 1) – Christian Year Overview

Richard — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:47:18 +0000

Celebrating the Christian Year has been by far one of the most significant, dynamic and moving spiritual practices that I have ever engaged in.

It may seem strange that to begin guiding you in how to pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer, I am not going to be talking about the Prayer Book at all. Or at least it might initially seem that way. To discuss praying the Daily Office necessitates understanding the underlying framework of the Christian Year.

Along with a majority of Evangelicals, your experience of the Christian Year may have mirrored my upbringing – being limited to the days of Easter and Christmas with the possible addition of Good Friday. If you were radical, your church might have had a Maundy Thursday service or an Advent wreath. Other than that, the year at church was littered with secular, Hallmark and institutional commemorations – Labor Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Missions Sunday, Superbowl Sunday, etc. I remember being shocked as a teenager that Pentecost Sunday did not even warrant a mention in our church’s bulletin, let alone being celebrated or even mentioned during the service.

Enough reminiscing. The point is that the Christian Year is somewhat of an enigma to the Evangelical populace at large and might possibly seem like an encumbering profusion of obscure holidays. Why they seem obscure is a discussion for another day (i.e., contemporary Christianity often is profoundly disconnected from historic and even Biblical Christianity…) but the Christian Year is not really about “holidays,” although there are many of them. The Christian Year is fundamentally a way to sanctify time and define our lives according to the unfolding narrative of redemption by structuring the year around the central redemptive acts of God in the Messiah. (read that sentence again, its the most important one in this whole post).

Many forms of spirituality are focused on the subjective feelings of the present moment. If you know me at all, you know that I am certainly not against subjective feelings. However, making this a central or guiding focus of one’s spirituality often leads to diametrical extremes – instability and monotony. The instability arises when the normal ebb and flow of our emotions becomes the (or a) primary criterion for structuring and evaluating our spiritual existence. When the emotions are charged we are ecstatic but when they are not, we become demoralized. We then constantly shift and change our spiritual practices in order to maintain or find or refire a certain spiritual experience. This ultimately results in a haphazard and disjointed spirituality. The monotony arises in the times that fall between the spiritual peaks. We even might call it a “dry-season” or a “desert-time.” When we’re not inspired, our spirituality nearly falls apart or ceases to have much meaning.

Celebration of the Christian Year is not simply a commemoration of holidays but constitutes an entire and alternate system for ordering our spiritual lives. In such it is a radically different approach to spirituality.

Its focus is different. Rather than concentrating on one’s personal experience, it revolves around the central redemptive acts of God in the Messiah.

Its temporal matrix is different. Rather than narrowing in on the experience of the present moment, it looks to the seasons of the year as its basis. Obviously this is a significantly distinct manner of structuring one’s spirituality. The purpose is not to have the most dynamic spiritual experience in this moment, but rather over the rhythms of months and years to root and ground one’s own life in a way that is centered around the person and life of Jesus and the redemption of the world God wrought in and through Him. This does not mean celebrating the Christian Year fails to have dramatic spiritual experiences (it certainly can!) – however, the guiding and evaluative criterion is located elsewhere. Our spirituality becomes rooted in something more secure than our capricious affections, freeing us from both the instability and monotony that such a misguided focus brings. Our spirituality thus has meaning even between the experiential peaks, because our ultimate goal is not now, but a future of formation and sanctification in the Messiah.

The Christian Year structures our lives around the story of redemption. Our culture contains a plethora of competing and contradictory stories which seek to explain what the world is about and give us meaning as a part of it. Christian Year spirituality seeks to contravene each of these stories of exploitation, violence and death by superimposing a different story – one about redemption, revolution, resurrection and life. Each year, the life of Jesus is “acted out” so to speak, through the seasons and celebrations of the Christian Year. As we journey through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension, we become active participants in this story. The beauty of God unfolds year by year as over and over we see how different he is than the leading “actors” in the narratives weaved in alienation from him. The self-giving love, tender humility, compassionate nearness and restorative grace shown forth as the life of Jesus unfolds, demonstrates an untold beauty, beckoning us to a Kingdom that pales the allurements of secular counterfeits. By entering this story, our lives are shaped and formed in contradiction, indeed, resistance to the pseudo-stories proffered by the spirit of our age. We look with eager anticipation to the consummation of this story, when Jesus returns to make all things new, as even now we partner with him in seeing His Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I know this is hardly a full explanation and justification of observing the Christian Year. I hope at some point to return and explain the concept more fully. For our purposes this simple introduction will suffice.

Now I’d like to give a brief overview of the major seasons of the Christian Year – to give you the framework within which the Daily Office is set (the Prayerbook has a more complete description of the calendar of the Church Year which you can download here). When praying the Office, it will be important at least to be able to know where in the Calendar of the Christian Year you are.

Advent

Time – from the fourth Sunday before Christmas until Christmas Eve

Color – Blue (either symbolizing either royalty or the waters of Genesis 1, the beginning of a new creation)

Central Theme – Expectation for the Messiah’s Coming – both in terms of His First Coming and Second Coming.

Spirituality – Longing for God’s Kingdom and justice on earth as it is in heaven.

Christmas

Time – from Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) until the eve of Epiphany (12 days)

Color – White or Gold (symbolic of joy and celebration)

Central Theme – The Incarnation of God made flesh. God eternally united himself with humanity in the person of Jesus in order to defeat the powers of darkness.

Spirituality – Celebrating the presence of God among us.

Epiphany

Time – from Epiphany (January 6) until Ash Wednesday (46 days before Easter)

Color – Green

Central Theme – The manifestation of the glory of Jesus through his earthly life and ministry, particularly commemorating the visit of the Magi, His baptism by John, the changing of water to wine at Cana and the Transfiguration. Jesus’ life and ministry demonstrates the content of our salvation in the restorative presence of the Reign of God (healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, feeding the hungry, delivering the oppressed, raising the dead, welcoming the outcasts, etc.)

Spirituality – Manifesting the life of Jesus in and through us.

Lent

Time – from Ash Wednesday (46 days before Easter) until the Easter Vigil

Color – Purple (symbolizes suffering)

Central Theme – Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness.

Spirituality – Repentance and resisting temptation as a preparation to celebrate the newness of resurrection life at Easter. Focus on fasting, prayer and giving to the poor.

Holy Week

Time – Palm Sunday until Holy Saturday (day before Easter)

Color – Red (symbolizing blood) or Black (symbolizing mourning/death)

Central Theme – Walking with Jesus through the days proceeding and leading up to his death.

Spirituality – Putting the old self of sin to death. Joining with Jesus as he identifies with and bears the weight of the world’s sin and suffering.

Easter

Time – Easter Sunday (or Easter Vigil) until Pentecost (7 weeks)

Color – White or Gold (symbolic of joy and celebration)

Central Theme – Resurrection Life. God triumphs over the powers of death. The New Creation is inaugurated in the resurrection of Jesus.

Spirituality – We rise from the death of sin and despair into a vibrant love for life and all that is living.

Ascension

Time – 40 days after Easter (Ascension Day is always on the Thursday in the 6th week of Easter)

Color – White or Gold

Central Theme – The Reign of the Messiah and his victory over all the powers of darkness.

Spirituality – Confident intercession from a place of authority over the powers of darkness.

Pentecost

Time – 50 days (7 weeks) after Easter

Color – Red (symbolizing the fire of the Holy Spirit)

Central Theme – The new age of the Spirit has been inaugurated (already-but-not-yet). The restoration of all things has begun through the Spirit.

Spirituality – As participants in God’s New Creation we boldly testify to the resurrection of Jesus as agents of New Creation.

Ordinary Time (i.e., no specific season)

Time – from Pentecost until Advent

Color – Green (symbolizing growth)

Central Theme – No central theme – or a continuation of Pentecost

Spirituality – Being present and responsive to God in the ordinariness of life

The Epiphany

Richard — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:03:06 +0000

I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but I cannot help but to comment on the significance of today. As I mentioned yesterday, I plan over the next few months to be sharing from my recent experiences of exploring the Church’s rich liturgical tradition. One dimension of this is the celebration of the Christian year. The Christian year in essence is the annual remembrance of the primary redemptive acts of God in Christ throughout the year. Our normal day-to-day time is punctuated (and then defined) by the major events described in the New Testament: the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit. Together with preceding preparatory seasons and consequent celebratory seasons we have the overall shape of the Christian year:

Advent – season beginning the fourth Sunday before Christmas
Christmas (Dec. 25) – twelve days celebrating the incarnation
Epiphany (Jan. 6) – begins the season celebrating Jesus life and ministry as the light of the world and the light to the Gentiles (continues until Ash Wednesday)
Lent – 40-day season of preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus – begins with Ash Wednesday
Holy Week (final week of lent) – beginning with the remembrance of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) through his death (Good Friday and Holy Saturday)
Easter – begins fifty days of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus
Ascension Day (40 days after Easter) – remembering Jesus’ ascension to heaven to reign at the right hand of the Father
Pentecost (50 days after Easter) – celebrating of the outpouring of the Spirit
Ordinary Time – from Pentecost until the next Advent

As Christians, we believe that the Christ-event indeed started a “new time,” inaugurated a “new age” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:20ff; Romans 5.14ff; 2 Cor. 5.17). Through certain specific historical moments, the power and life of the age to come has invaded our present time. One of the ways we commemorate and experience this is through the celebration of the Christian year, allowing the historical moments of God’s work in Christ to define the seasons of our lives.

In a later post, I’ll comment more on the Christian year and how exciting it has been for me as I have begun to celebrate it. For now I want to comment on Epiphany, one of the if not the least celebrated of all major Christian holidays. The Book of Common Prayer lists Epiphany as one of the seven “Principal Feasts,” up there with Christmas Day, Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost (never mind what the remaining three are for now, we’ll get to them at some point). Yet for most of my life I never knew what Epiphany was or had even heard of it. If the same is true for you, count yourself in good company.

This may be surprising, but in fact, Epiphany marks the end of Christmas. That’s right, the end of Christmas. This is because Christmas is actually a twelve day celebration. The only remaining vestige most of us can cling to in this regard is the hackneyed classic “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – you know, the one about the partridge in the pear tree. I know this is strange, but stay with me – the twelve days of Christmas are actually religious rather then secular. The secular celebration of Christmas would have you think it begins the day after Thanksgiving (or earlier) and Santa leaves his station at the mall the moment Christmas Day arrives. On the contrary, the Christian celebration of Christmas does not begin until Christmas Day (the anticipatory season of Advent precedes it) and continues for twelve days until Epiphany.

The word epiphany means “manifestation.” Epiphany remembers the manifestation of Jesus as the light of the world, particularly to the Gentiles. There are four events commonly commemorated on Epiphany and during the ensuing season: 1) the visit of the Magi to see Jesus, in which Gentiles bring the Jewish king gifts; 2) the baptism of Jesus, in which he is “manifested” in his Messianic calling and sent forth in the power of the Spirit; 3) the miracle of water turning to wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2) in which the Gospel tells us his glory was “manifested” and 4) the Transfiguration.

Since the season following Epiphany lasts for the next month (which because Easter is so early this year, it is an uncommonly short Epiphany season), I plan to comment more on its significance in the next few weeks. For I now I just want to give a brief comment on why I am happy to celebrate Epiphany today, and why I think we should expend some effort to restore the celebration of the Epiphany season. Epiphany reminds me of the saving significance of the life and ministry of Jesus. A full understanding of the salvific work of God in the Messiah must take into account the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and giving of the Spirit.

I love reading the Gospel stories, not simply as introductions to the crucifixion but to actually see Jesus bringing salvation to humanity by his life. In celebrating Jesus as the light of the world we remember a person who saves by drawing near. He does not scorn the human frame, despise the malfunctions of our brokenness, nor cringe at the sight of our poverty. Instead he stoops low to bring the good news of his Kingdom near, setting captives free. He touches the lepers and frees them from their deplorable untouchable status. He gives food to the hungry and endues hope to those despairing for life itself. He speaks face to face with women, dignifying those who have been abused and treated as disposable by cruel husbands and unjust legal systems. He eats joyfully with tax collectors and sinners, bursting the bonds of culturally enslaving shame and social stratification. He opens the eyes of the blind, restores the crippled, heals the brokenhearted, welcomes the outcast, esteems the despised, forgives the sins of the crushed, and raises the dead to life. In doing so he has “manifested” his glory – “the Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations” (Ps. 98:2).

Happy Epiphany!

On the Road to Emmaus » Christian Year

Practical Suggestions for Celebrating the Church Year

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