This is designed to help you experience the seasonal rhythms of the Christian year that are useful for you and perhaps your family. Remember, "all may, some should, none must." Seek the Spirit and the advice of a mentor or coach to determine which of these are useful to integrate into your life.
It can be hard when you're new to seasonal rhythms to remember when a season is coming up. Sign up below to receive one or two emails ahead of each season as a reminder and encouragement to experience seasonal rhythms.
November 27–December 24
Advent is a season of waiting and hastening. It's a time in which we imagine ourselves waiting along with the ancients for the Incarnation as we expect the celebration of the Incarnation in Christmas. But perhaps more importantly, we await Christ's ultimate coming when he will set all things right. During Advent, we reflect on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love in anticipation of the once and future coming of Jesus, the Resurrection, and the restoration of Heaven and Earth.
December 25–January 5
Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus. Traditionally it wasn't a one day celebration with presents, but a 12-day-long period of feasting and rejoicing in the Messiah. During Christmas, we should consider the importance of God joining divinity to humanity through Jesus, the idea that heaven and earth are reunited in Jesus and that Jesus is presently incarnate at God's right hand.
January 6
The Epiphany is so easy to miss. It comes just as we're settling back into our secular, Western rhythms. But as Gentiles (non-Jews), Epiphany is crucially important. On Epiphany we consider the visitation of the Magi to a young Jesus and his family. The arrival of the Magi fulfilled the promise of the prophets that the kings of the earth would gather from the east to give gifts to the anointed king of Israel. In this one final day following Christmas, we marvel in the fact that the Gospel was revealed to the Gentiles as early as Jesus' infancy.
February 22–April 6
This season is something many of us have been in proximity to but have often dismissed as "Catholic." In fact, the practice of Lent is very likely one of the oldest Christian seasons besides Easter and continues to be kept by Protestants and Catholics alike.
This is a 40-day period preceding Easter in which we embody, in real time, the wandering of Jesus in the wilderness. We come in close contact with temptation and human evil, but recognize that we are fed by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Throughout this season of thoughtful, penitential practice, we give up things in order to orient ourselves to Jesus, who gave up the ultimate privileges for our sake.
April 2–8
Holy Week plays out in real time the final days before Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Throughout it we are invited to rehearse and consider the tension between triumph and betrayal, deep love and agony which Jesus experienced this week. We journey with him to the cross and wait expectantly for the resurrection.
The week begins on Sunday with Palm Sunday. It proceeds through Maundy Thursday with Jesus' institution of the eucharist and command to love one another. On Good Friday, Jesus is crucified and we mourn his sacrifice. Holy Saturday is a day brimming with expectation. Classically the events of the harrowing of hell are associated with Holy Saturday, and while all seems lost and the grave lies still, God is on the move.
April 9
Everything begins at midnight on Easter Sunday as church bells ring, the world is filled with light, and darkness flees. The Son of God, the Messiah, the King of the Cosmos is resurrected in power. On this day we marvel in the work of Christ. This should be the high point of our year, and all-enveloping, inhibition-evaporating event in which we celebrate the greatness of a God who has power over death.
May 18
Ascension is so important to our understanding of Jesus' work on the earth, especially as it relates to the atonement. On this day, 40 days after Easter Sunday, we watch as Jesus ascends to be seated at the right hand of the Father almighty in fulfillment of all the Scriptures. Jesus enters God's space as the blameless one who goes up on our behalf, and he will return again to set all things right. Ascension should leave us with the feeling you have after camp or a family reunion. It's sort of a release. A change has occurred. It's hopeful and good, but it's bittersweet, and you long for your next meeting.
May 28
The human family was split apart when they rebelled against God's vision of flourishing and work. Their languages were divided and only a single family (the Israelites) invited to participate in God's restoration project. But on Pentecost, that all changed. The work done at the Tower of Babylon is reversed as the Spirit is poured out on all flesh. The Gospel is proclaimed in all tongues, and the family of God is expanded to all who believe. You are an inheritor of this day. Bask in the goodness and inclusivity of God.
June 4
Trinity Sunday is the pivot point from the seasons oriented around the life and work of Christ to what we call "Ordinary Season." On this Sunday we consider God's nature and God's revelation to us. God's revelation as one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity is an invitation to know God more intimately.
June 11–November 19
After the anticipation and excitement of the previous segment of the Christian year, it can be hard to transition into ordinary season. It seems to plain and unextraordinary. But it's then that we remember that God operates in the normal. The Spirit is still in our midst, still operating. Ordinary Season invites us to become aware of the nearness and presence of God in the unextraordinary.
November 26
At the close of the Christian year, we ratchet things back up. In one week, the year will begin anew with the season of Advent. So on this last Sunday of the Christian year, we acknowledge that Christ is enthroned in heaven over the whole cosmos and all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him. It is just the sort of reminder we need as we prepare to await his coming once again as one year cycles into the next.