Sunday, February 28, 2021

Day 8: Life as liturgy

 Miles woke up with an intense fixation. Before anything else this morning,  he must make honey bee cookies. As I began to pull out the ingredients,  I realized it was this time of year that we made honey bee cookies for the first time.... oh... of course,  Purim. 

Even though I grew up first Catholic, then Lutheran, none of the churches I went to ask a child really emphasized the church calendar. There was an attitude that following liturgy made worship an endless mindless repetition of words that made them lose their meaning and that it was more authentic to look and find your own words to  pray. 

It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned the colors of the church years, the sections of liturgy in various types of church services and masses or the holidays of the Jewish calendar. And at first,  it felt a little distant and overly ritualistic. But season after season came and went and I found my life beginning to intertwine with the liturgy of the religious calendars.  As much as labor day and back to school seasons impact my life's orientation so too does epiphany and Lent and advent. 

When faith is blazing with passion and spirit,  my kyrie elesion is soulful and deep, like the blues or jazz.  And when faith feels far away and my heart full of doub, it is a yearning, a bringing me back to center, and a practice that I commit to regardless of the weather in my soul. 

And so my appreciation of liturgy grows.  Etched into my soul. Automatic like breathe. 

"Peace be with you.  And also with you. "

But as I stirred these spring time honey bee cookies,  thinking about Ester and Purim and Lent and what I might write about this,  I realized that life can be a form of liturgy.  A prayer. A call and a response. The celebration of the seasons in their order. Gardening in the spring and pondering the work of the creator as new life unfolds from silent seeds. Harvesting in the autumn,  thankful for the abundance.  Swimming in the summer, finding moments of rest beside still waters that renew the soul.  Lighting candles in the early dark nights of winter and contemplating how light splits the darkness and shines to every corner of the room.  

God is there in the turn of the seasons,  in the dance of life, in unsuspecting moments, written on our hearts. 

A so today.  Honey bee cookies.  Remembering the courage of Ester and reminding myself to be brave as she was.  



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