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Exploring the Time After Pentecost in the Liturgical Year | Reflection

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Vintage prayer card of Pentecost In the 1962 Church calendar (which I prefer more often than not over the current liturgical calendar for various reasons that I will address at a later time), three overall seasons make up the liturgical year: the Season of the Nativity, the Season of Easter, and the Season of Pentecost. (These are also sometimes referred to as the Christmas Cycle, the Easter Cycle, and the Time After Pentecost.) These three larger seasons then have smaller seasons within them: The Season of Nativity is made up of the season of Advent, the season of Christmas, and the season of Epiphany. The Season of Easter is made up of the season of Septuagesima, the season of Lent, and the season of Easter. The Season of Pentecost is made up of the season of Pentecost (which is simply the octave of Pentecost) and all the time from then until the end of the liturgical year. There is some debate as to whether Pentecost is included at the end of the Season of Easter or the beginning
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February 3, 2024 | Dear Azalea

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Dear Azalea, What is the sense in spending my time and energy wishing I could see you, speak with you, hold you? It’s not constructive. All it does is suck me inside myself and isolate me from my family and responsibilities. Why do I feel like I need you to be with me now when I know full-well in my heart that I will see you again at the end of my earthly life? It feels self-centered of me to want you so, and like a waste of time in the full scope of my life. The Lord knows how impatient I am, and now He has given me a task that requires the utmost patience: to wait my entire life to see you again. It feels like a cruel joke sometimes. I feel like I am walking a tightrope ever since you died, teetering between taking the time to miss and mourn you and focusing on moving forward with my life and responsibilities for the sake of my husband and children. I’m trying to do what I ought for them, but this urge to drop everything and focus on you comes when it’s the most inconvenient. And the
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Rising | Poem

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When asked which I prefer, sunrise or sunset, I answered: golds, scarlets, violets bursting from the clouds celebrating a day well-lived — nothing compared until I saw my daughter's face pastel and understated pressed against my chest in the quiet daybreak. So peaceful, waiting for life to be breathed into the air — for the mourning dove to coo, for the awakening of the world.
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January 12, 2024 | Dear Azalea

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Dear Azalea, I regret that I didn’t cherish you more when I had you. It pains me to admit that your pregnancy had become another set of complaints. The nausea, the hip and back pain, the jabs from within, the acid reflux, the constant trouble sleeping and fatigue—I spent more time complaining than I did getting excited for you. You were my fourth pregnancy, and so when I first felt you move, I was mostly unphased. In your ultrasounds, you looked like just another baby. But it’s all colored so differently now. I want you to know that even though I wasn’t as excited as I should have been, I was still excited for you…especially at the end, which makes the timing of your loss all the more heartbreaking. I was excited to know what you would look like and if you would resemble any of your sisters. And I couldn’t wait to see if you’d grow up to act like them too. I was so ready to bring you home to them and watch them smother you with unrestrained, adorably aggressive toddler love. And I coul
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Meditating on the Lost Season of Epiphany | Reflection

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Portion of the Nave Ceiling from the Ely Cathedral, England Often when we think of the Epiphany, we think of the feast day celebrated on January 6th in which the Magi visited the Infant Jesus and presented their gifts to Him. But in the older Church calendars, the Epiphany also marks the beginning of a sub-season within the larger Christmas Season called Epiphanytide or Time After Epiphany. Not many know about this part of the liturgical calendar, and personally, I think it's a shame because the more I learn about it, the more I find how rich it is in the spiritual fruits it has to offer. In the current liturgical calendar, themes of the Epiphany are present in the weeks between the feast day and Lent, but it is no longer considered a season and instead falls under the category of Ordinary Time. And while it echoes the sub-season it came to replace, it was fully separated from the larger Christmas Season. I consider it to be a sub-season because at a glance, it appears somewhat sep
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Ballade of the Blessed Mother | Poem

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Mary and Eve by Nikki Lee Before Mary there lived Eve, And through God's Almighty power, Eternal grace she did receive So long as she did not devour The fruit the snake said would allow her To be as goddess if she'd but eat. But Satan's lie did not empower. Her trust in God was incomplete. Thus Mary Immaculate, Redemptive Eve, Did God with graces shower. For by The Spirit she would conceive In the humble virgin's bower. From the Lord's request she did not cower; The handmaid's heart didst lack conceit. Prepared to bear ev'ry scourge and scour, Her trust in God would be complete. At Cana's Wedding Feast Mary did believe Jesus could with wondrous wine endow her. But Eve's sin would of her Son bereave. Although had not yet come His hour, The Woman exercised her own willpower: "Do as He tells you," she did entreat Of the servants at the wedding shower. Her trust in God had been complete. Envoi Much like the Old and purple hyssop flower, Mary&#
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Swaddle & Shroud | Poem

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Swaddle & Shroud  by  Amy Heyse For swaddle and shroud The Lord was destined Through the myst'ry of The Incarnation. From wooden cross A shadow's cast; The Savior laid To rest at last. In wooden manger, A bed of hay Is fitted for The Lord this day. Food for man Atop food for beast Came to feed The least of least. The baby Christ, Born to die, Entered our world With a cry To open heaven and Take sins away In the arms of Mary On Christmas Day.
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