I’ve been thinking a lot lately on how and why I have chosen to use the liturgical calendar (of the Western church, the Eastern Orthodox Church has it’s own) with my family. For clarity I wanted to write some things down.
To begin with it was all very new to me, this church calendar, seasons, festivals, saints etc. I’m still learning about it. It appealed to me because it gave me a link to something bigger than just my day to day life in the particular community I happen to be a part of, because I love history and I love learning about different people in different times. And it appealed to me for the lessons it could provide that I believe are worth passing on to my children. And because somewhere along the way I picked up the idea that what we do with our bodies, with our time and with our lives makes a confession.
The Church Calendar can be used as a way to order our days. I like the joke Jim Gaffigan makes about how much McDonald’s has given our culture. McDonald’s being a compass for society to know when breakfast ends or that St. Patrick’s Day is coming because it starts selling Shamrock Shakes. Uh, he’s much funnier than that I promise.
But there is truth there. People are bound by time, by calendars, schedules and traditions. These are usually made by institutions, by our Nation’s holidays, our individual values or in our case, I choose to make it the Church Year. (Yes, of course we also keep the secular one too.)
But there has to be certain understandings if the tool of a liturgical calendar, it’s feasts and saint days are going to be used correctly.
