Cantica Gaudia

Praying the Daily Office with joy.

The Episcopal Church, like many others, starts its year with Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent has a very different flavor than secular getting-ready-for-Christmas season -- in the medieval and the Celtic traditions, it was viewed as a "little Lent," a time for examination, fasting and somber preparation. We hear many readings from the prophets, asking us to "prepare a Way for the Lord." Our own actions to collaborate with the coming Christ Child -- making level the road so that all may travel on it easily -- are emphasized. Look for images of journeying, of Mary's pondering, of light and darkness in contention, of messages from God and God's messengers, in the liturgy of this time of year.

Christmastide is the twelve days between the commemoration of the birth of Christ and the Epiphany. While secular households are throwing away wadges of gift wrapping and looking for after-Christmas bargains, we're still telling the story of the Christ Child, and those who first came to see him: the shepherds and wise folk -- and how the world never again would be the same.

Epiphany is the season of revelation and recognition, often focused on three particular moments where Jesus' unique gifts and role in the drama of salvation were suddenly visible to those sharing his human life: the adoration of the Magi, the scene of his baptism in the river Jordan, and the first miracle at the wedding at Cana. We'll see images and stories of light and vision, of glory and inspiration, of understanding and enlightenment, and the pursuit of wisdom, in this season.

Lent is the season that follows, and is sometime characterized as gloomy and painful -- a time of guilt and morbid self-denial. It is the forty days before Easter, staring with Ash Wednesday, when last year's Palm Sunday palms are burnt and their ashes imposed on our foreheads to remind us of our mortality, and the mutability of our world. It is a season when we're asked to go back down into our roots, to examine who we truly are, to shed what unneccesary accretions are keeping us from God and from our full glory as God's children, and to listen to Christ's call to serve others with a cleaner, sharper listening. Some of us undertake disciplines -- a giving up of something superfluous, or increasingly, adding a new commitment to some aspect of serving God and each other. Look for the call to strip down, go deep, and to examine closely during the liturgies of this season.

Holy Week is the week leading up to and including Easter. It can be a painful and emotional recreation of the walk to Calvary, the dizzying series of events that happened between the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, to a few wailing women clustered around the foot of a cross on a barren hillside only a few days later. It includes the three days, the Triduum, from Maundy Thursday (where we remember Jesus distilling the essense of what we must do -- love each other -- to his friends at the Last Supper) through Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. Liturgies get stripped down to their bones during this time, as believers draw together in both sorrow and hope, waiting for the miracle of the resurrection.

Easter is the birth and fulfillment of that hope, and a time when we celebrate the triumph of life and hope over death and despair. Look for images of growth, of birth, of renewal and fresh joy, of burgeoning energies and fresh starts, in the prayers of this season.

After the resurrection, our tradition teaches that Jesus was among his friends for several weeks -- continuing to speak, and teach, and strengthen them for the time when he would no longer be among them. The season of Pentecost celebrates the role of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in and among us to bring us close to God, once Jesus had departed. You'll find images and stories about language and eloquence, confusion and enlightenment, journeys and departures, among the prayers and liturgies of this time of year.

And then there's Everything Else, also called Ordinary Time (which I'm splitting into early summer, late summer and fall)-- the weeks between the feast of Pentecost and the start of Advent again. We tell the stories of Jesus' work in the world -- share the parables he taught, the journeys he made, and the healing he performed. Look for metaphors of work, of connection to communities in need, of calls to action in the world which God loves so well.