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Showing posts with label Seasons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seasons. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Seasons - of life, of body, of soul, of spirit.

Amplify


How important are the Seasons and how important it is to be aware of them.  

Within our spiritual walk, we greet the seasons.  However, for those of us living in the Southern Hemisphere, it can be very difficult to draw every bit of spiritual juice from a season when its heritage is located firmly and historically in the Northern Hemisphere.  In fact, some of my favourite feasts could benefit from a rethinking in a southern or country specific context.

As well as the spiritual calendar, we have the dominant calendar.  This can be regarded as scientific or as a legacy of a dominant European empire.  

Then, as many of us know, but not all of us realise there are the indigenous, place specific seasons.  

The picture above relates to The Gooniyandi Seasons Calendar.  Please follow the link to find out more.

It should be emphasised that this calendar relates to a specific place or country.  This cannot be applied in every part of Australia - or even every part of tropical Australia.  I think those of us who are gardeners, particularly those who garden for food, realise that even suburb to suburb a few kilometres apart in a city can have different micro-climates.  When frost ceases, when winds come, when vegetables mature. 

As we draw close to the awareness and practicum of the seasons, we are enabled and encouraged to draw closer to our Creator, the Designer of our world.  We can partner with this aspect of Creation to our own benefit.  Let us learn from our Creator, from the original inhabitants, let us listen to the experience of the old hands. 

As much of the world evidences changes in established climate patterns, we still need to learn from the past as new avenues of learning come upon us.  Isn't that like our spiritual journey? We learn, we change, we learn again. Through this we expand our knowledge of ourselves and others.  We learn more of the Creator we worship and the personality who designed all this with us - and other species - in mind.  We experience the seasons of our lives.



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Saturday, January 08, 2011

Past, Present, Future - truths for all times and seasons #quotes

Amplify



The truth of sacred scripture

is never limited to or contained 

only in the past. 

Quote from Interrupting the Silence 
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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Advent or advent: a celebration of life in Christ or a life of consumerism?


Advent for those in the Western tradition
begins on 28 November
Advent for those in the Eastern tradition
begins on 15 November.

Advent to is a time of looking forward.  Below is a dictionary definition of the word "advent".
ad·vent  (dvnt)
n.
1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important: the advent of the computer.
2. Advent
a. The liturgical period preceding Christmas, beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence.
b. Christianity The coming of Jesus at the Incarnation.
c. Christianity See Second Coming.

[Middle English, the Advent season, from Old French, from Latin adventus, arrival, from past participle ofadvenre, to come to : ad-, ad- + venre, to come; see gw- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

As you will note from the derivation of the word, it refers to an arrival or a coming.  Currently, advent calendars are arriving in the shops which rely more on sale because of novelty or chocolate consumption with no hint of the what Advent means.  Please note, I have used the capital letter for Advent which relies on the spiritual context and lower case for the word when used in relation to consumerism.
I take the trouble for remembrance of this because Advent is a time of preparation to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and to remember that while there was a First Advent as faithful people looked forward to His coming, this is also a time of preparation as faithful people look forward to His second coming when He returns to reclaim His own.  
So, with the help of Christine Sine's beautiful video above, let us take time to emphasise Advent and truly enter into the the spirit of the Christmas season with a life lived in Christ.  If we only celebrate advent, what is it that we are commemorating? An introduction to and preparation for consumerism and life with monopoloistic retailers and confectionary and noveltry producers?
, The Uncluttered Heart: Making Room for God During Advent and Christmas
Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J.M. Nouwen: Daily Scripture and Prayers together with Nouwen's Own Words 
We Light the Candles: Devotions Related to Family Use of the Advent Wreath 
 
 Advent and Christmas Wisdom From G. K. Chesterton 
Preparing My Heart for Advent 
A Family Advent: Keeping the Savior in the Season  
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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Now when are we? A look at liturgical calendars in the Christian tradition


The major feasts of the Christian community known as The Church are behind us in this liturgical year.  We are well and truly forging along in The Green Season.  This time (as marked above) is known as The Green Season because green vestments are the norm in this period - and it is a substantial period.  It is the 'Ordinary' period of community life.  Given the connotation of Green in our culture at this period of history, it is fitting to have to face our greenness Sunday in and Sunday out if we are part of a community which supports a vestment-ed clergy.  

Christians keep track of these events through liturgical calendars and the net has quite a few for us to use.  I like the Cyberfaith one.  It is clear and concise and one can move around it to check the right Sunday/week and get the best information.  Just a caution though.  This is a Roman Catholic calendar in the Western tradition of Christianity.  The Eastern tradition has a different calendar.  As well, the feasts and fasts marked on Cyberfaith relate to Roman Catholic practice so Anglican practice, for instance, will differ.

Most of the Western tradition are using a common lectionary these days so unified liturgical calendars go hand in hand with this.  

So to-day is the 11th Sunday in ordinary time. 

In the Anglican Calendar for Australia, we have two favourites of mine to remember this week.

To-day, we remember Antony of Padua.

On Tuesday, we remember Evelyn Underhill.
 

The Lady Poverty

    I MET her on the Umbrian hills,
    Her hair unbound, her feet unshod:
    As one whom secret glory fills
    She walked, alone with God.
    I met her in the city street:
    Oh, changed was all her aspect then!
    With heavy eyes and weary feet
    She walked alone, with men.
    Evelyn Underhil
Related Reading:
 Saint Antony of Padua; The Miracle Worker (1195-1231) 

 The Chronicle of Saint Antony of Padua

Mysticism

Practical Mysticism

Fruits of the Spirit (Treasures from the Spiritual Classics)

Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series) 

The Spiritual Life 

The Ways of the Spirit 

The Cloud of Unknowing 

Worship 

Concerning the Inner Life 

Evelyn Underhill Mystic and Author Giclee Poster Print by Howard Smith, 18x24 

Radiance: A Spiritual Memoir by Evelyn Underhill 

The Life of Evelyn Underhill: An Intimate Portrait of the Ground-Breaking Author of Mysticism 

An Anthology of the Love of God from the Writings of Evelyn Underhill 

The Making of a Mystic: New and Selected Letters of Evelyn Underhill 


 
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