A Bundle of Myrrh

Several years ago I decided to put the calendar of the Church to use in my home. I wanted to do this especially for my children, hoping to teach them and to anchor them in Scripture and the Church.

The Christian Church Year is used for Christians for several reasons. To keep before us historic events important to our faith, for teaching ourselves and our children about Christ’s life and the Gospel and to remind us that this world is not our home, the focus of our lives is or should be on the eternal.

I’ve found that observing the Commemorations, Feasts and Festivals of the Church calendar has been a benefit to me as well as to my children.

These days put a STOP in the routine of our weeks and months to refocus, to remind me of the greater tasks at hand, to rejoice in the Faith we have been given, rejoice in what our Lord has done for us and to thank our Savior for the testimony of His people that came before, that great cloud of witnesses that encourage us.

I’ve started small, learning a little about the calendar myself and then researching ways to emphasize special days and seasons of the Church.

You can view some of the ways our family celebrates the Church year by clicking on “Church Year” in the menu. I share many of my resources in those posts.

I recently read this very good summary of how the “The Church Year” can be used beneficially:

“It’s about Christ. The Church Year is organized to remember that Christ comes (Advent) only for sinners, that He was truly made flesh (Christmas) for all people (Epiphany), that He was tempted like us and remained without sin (Lent), and that, being put to death for our sin (Good Friday) and raised to life for our justification (Easter), He sends the Holy Spirit to give us the gift of faith (Pentecost), and grows His Church through the preaching of His Word and the gift of His sacraments (Time of the Church). This pattern of changing colors, readings from Scripture and marking of time is designed to focus on Christ.”

Paul Soulek from The Lutheran Witness April 2013 Article pp. 4-5

The Church or Liturgical Calendar should be used to focus on Christ, so why shouldn’t it be a part of our home life?

I also wanted to mention that a couple months ago the very kind Katy of The Church Year in the Home  invited me to be a co-author over at her blog.

I was so honored to be asked to share the little things my family does with the readers over there! If you are more interested in ways to bring the Church calendar, Festivals, Feast and Commemorations into your home this blog is a great place to start. Katy has created a site with wonderful ideas, history and resources for you. Go take a look!

I always love to hear about the ways some of you keep Holy Days in your home! Thanks for sharing with me.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 9th, 2013 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Church, Church Year. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.