Seasonal cycles
The unfolding of the seasons was an overarching template for the Celtic imagination. In the pre-Christian tradition there are significant feast days aligned with the equinoxes and solstices. And then there are the cross-quarter days, which are the midway points between them and part of the harvest cycle.
The Christian calendar incorporates many of these rhythms, with Christmas falling near the winter solstice, the feast of John the Baptist at the summer solstice, and Easter after the spring equinox. The monastic prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours also respects these sacred rhythms of nature’s rise and fall, birth and death.
In daily life
Make time for contemplative walks outside in your neighbourhood. Instead of trying to get somewhere specific, simply pay attention to the world around you and how God might be speaking to you. Pay particular attention to the signs of the season—what flowers might be in bloom, whether the trees have their leaves, and the height of the sun in the sky. Ask yourself what season your own soul is in right now.
Scripture meditation
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.
—Ecclesiastes 3:1–2a
Prayer
God of our Hearts, not of our outer garments, nor our church structures, nor our programs and human plans, you are the only one who can make us pure. You are the only one who can wash us clean of all our sin and guilt. You alone can save us from the terrible Day of the Lord. You are the merciful and just God. If we turn, we see you. Help us to turn, O God of all hearts, and find you here with us: Emmanuel – the Christ-heart within us all. We light our fires for you, to reflect your shining. Amen
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