Saturday, May 9, 2009

By the 5th week of Easter, My True God Gave to Me...


Many years ago, I decided to live in sync with the liturgical calendar (the Temporal Cycle) shared by Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal/Anglican churches. This spiritual practice has transformed my life in wonderful ways. The liturgical calendar maps out where we've been and where we're going, while providing a means for focusing on what's happening right now.

I love explaining the whys and hows of this practice to people who haven't yet made viable travel connections between church-the-building and faith-the-life. In fact, this is the talk I'm most often invited to give by faith formation folk. And yet, here we are, celebrating the fifth Sunday of Easter and my calendar cognitive disorder persists. I am...where?

Good thing Easter is fifty days. I've needed time to recognize -- and contemplate -- the gifts of this season. On this fifth Sunday of Easter, the value of seeing and believing (e.g., the road to Emmaus), as well as the importance of believing without seeing (e.g., Thomas) come especially to mind. I've also been thinking a lot about fish.