Carolyn!! Yes!! Thank you for putting words to this phenomenon. So much of church history is a symbiosis between popular devotion and formal liturgy - but it often feels like the modern approach is to cleave these two essential pieces totally apart, and so we cage ourselves into a space where we feel that we have to be "on brand," even liturgically. We're led to believe that we need all these explicitly (rather than implicitly) liturgical products, and even when there's a beautiful heart behind the product or the buyer, I can't help but feel exhausted by the inundation of this trend.
Like you, See's candy is a big part of my Advent and Christmas memory bank!! Every Christmas, my mom used to buy custom-candy boxes for us (oh my GOSH, the milk chocolate Bordeaux...) They're explicitly secular, but, for our family, implicitly liturgical - I also can't go by a See's store or see a catalog without being transported to the approach of our family's Christmastime together.
A few years ago, having grown up on "A Christmas Story," I finally read Jean Shepherd's book upon which the movie's based - "In God We Trust (All Others Pay Cash"...and my husband & I took turns reading it out loud to each other when we'd wrap presents on Advent evenings after the kids went to bed. It's an INCREDIBLE book, so funny and poignant and witty, and so that became an Advent tradition for us: we bought the rest of Jean's books, and now, every time Advent starts to approach, I feel the itch to get the next book out and start reading and laughing till I cry.
For us, it's liturgical: and I think the more we can rid ourselves of the sacred/secular divide, the more wholly we can live into abundance!
I love the encouragement to do what you're already doing and connect it to the calendar. Yesterday I had to make cupcakes for a baby shower, but it was also Saint Cecilia’s day/my daughter’s name day. We made cupcakes for Saint Cecilia’s day and listened to some of the saint Cecilia hymns.
I'm so grateful that studying seventh century liturgical texts in grad school made me much more interested in the medieval practice of the liturgy than the modern "products" side *before* I became a parent. It's so easy to get sucked into the complex!
I love the way you articulate this. I've long had the sense that less is more. I love paraliturgical rituals but so much of the liturgical living stuff feels like busywork. I've got too much executive dysfunction to kill myself trying to do all the things. So we have a few things we do and we love to do them. When the kids were little my husband always made pancakes after Mass. It was such a beloved ritual, and they loved to help. Eventually Mass times shifted and it became too hard to keep up. But I'm sure my children will cherish fond memories of it all the same.
I'm loving Winters in the World. I read the first few chapters this summer and am looking forward to diving into it again as the days are growing shorter. Thanks for the reminder to pull it out of the stack again.
You are the third or fourth person I've seen to recommend Wintering. I'm beginning to think maybe I need to add it to my to be read pile.
Beautiful, Carolyn! I just subscribed and look forward to reading more of your work. You're an entertaining and thoughtful writer. I was raised in the Baptist church that purposely chucked liturgy many decades ago in order to distance itself as much as possible from Catholic traditions. Growing up, I didn't even know what Lent was -- though we did celebrate Advent every year with the nightly lighting of candles and the reading of devotionals. As an adult, I've joined a Presbyterian church and was introduced to liturgy for the first time -- because a return to the liturgical rhythms of the year was gaining popularity in the Protestant evangelical world. Speaking for myself, I enjoy the historical connection to the past that the liturgy provides -- we are worshipping the same Jesus through the centuries! Thank you for your paraliturgical recommendations. They remind me of that passage in Deuteronomy 6:6-7. "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Everything can point us to Jesus! Here's a book that may interest you: https://a.co/d/blKXAby Looking forward to more!
First off, a copy of Winters in the World is finally available for me at the library. Yay! Hoping to pick it up today!
My son sweetly compared the action of baking soda to the feeding of the five thousand while baking simple vegan ginger cookies for our Saint Nicholas Eve gathering earlier this month. I didn’t set up any special demonstration or lecture, but the stories we read and the tasks we do came together in a special way for him.
Kids can see the sacred in the everyday. And those home and agrarian images run through Christ’s parables. Through prayer, the home becomes the little church, crafts or no crafts. ❤️
it's crazy how children notice things! my toddler has started trying to count Jesus's wounds in the crucifix every time we're at church. Kid has no idea there's a whole devotion to those!
Carolyn!! Yes!! Thank you for putting words to this phenomenon. So much of church history is a symbiosis between popular devotion and formal liturgy - but it often feels like the modern approach is to cleave these two essential pieces totally apart, and so we cage ourselves into a space where we feel that we have to be "on brand," even liturgically. We're led to believe that we need all these explicitly (rather than implicitly) liturgical products, and even when there's a beautiful heart behind the product or the buyer, I can't help but feel exhausted by the inundation of this trend.
Like you, See's candy is a big part of my Advent and Christmas memory bank!! Every Christmas, my mom used to buy custom-candy boxes for us (oh my GOSH, the milk chocolate Bordeaux...) They're explicitly secular, but, for our family, implicitly liturgical - I also can't go by a See's store or see a catalog without being transported to the approach of our family's Christmastime together.
A few years ago, having grown up on "A Christmas Story," I finally read Jean Shepherd's book upon which the movie's based - "In God We Trust (All Others Pay Cash"...and my husband & I took turns reading it out loud to each other when we'd wrap presents on Advent evenings after the kids went to bed. It's an INCREDIBLE book, so funny and poignant and witty, and so that became an Advent tradition for us: we bought the rest of Jean's books, and now, every time Advent starts to approach, I feel the itch to get the next book out and start reading and laughing till I cry.
For us, it's liturgical: and I think the more we can rid ourselves of the sacred/secular divide, the more wholly we can live into abundance!
I love the encouragement to do what you're already doing and connect it to the calendar. Yesterday I had to make cupcakes for a baby shower, but it was also Saint Cecilia’s day/my daughter’s name day. We made cupcakes for Saint Cecilia’s day and listened to some of the saint Cecilia hymns.
YESSSS I love this! Extra points for catching her name day. I missed both first and middle this year 🙈
I always forget my own, but Saint Cecilia’s is a little easier to remember. The cupcakes were a nice coincidence!
Thank you for this beautiful post Carolyn. Such a great reminder that liturgical living doesn’t have to complicated.
I'm so grateful that studying seventh century liturgical texts in grad school made me much more interested in the medieval practice of the liturgy than the modern "products" side *before* I became a parent. It's so easy to get sucked into the complex!
I love the way you articulate this. I've long had the sense that less is more. I love paraliturgical rituals but so much of the liturgical living stuff feels like busywork. I've got too much executive dysfunction to kill myself trying to do all the things. So we have a few things we do and we love to do them. When the kids were little my husband always made pancakes after Mass. It was such a beloved ritual, and they loved to help. Eventually Mass times shifted and it became too hard to keep up. But I'm sure my children will cherish fond memories of it all the same.
I'm loving Winters in the World. I read the first few chapters this summer and am looking forward to diving into it again as the days are growing shorter. Thanks for the reminder to pull it out of the stack again.
You are the third or fourth person I've seen to recommend Wintering. I'm beginning to think maybe I need to add it to my to be read pile.
Beautiful, Carolyn! I just subscribed and look forward to reading more of your work. You're an entertaining and thoughtful writer. I was raised in the Baptist church that purposely chucked liturgy many decades ago in order to distance itself as much as possible from Catholic traditions. Growing up, I didn't even know what Lent was -- though we did celebrate Advent every year with the nightly lighting of candles and the reading of devotionals. As an adult, I've joined a Presbyterian church and was introduced to liturgy for the first time -- because a return to the liturgical rhythms of the year was gaining popularity in the Protestant evangelical world. Speaking for myself, I enjoy the historical connection to the past that the liturgy provides -- we are worshipping the same Jesus through the centuries! Thank you for your paraliturgical recommendations. They remind me of that passage in Deuteronomy 6:6-7. "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Everything can point us to Jesus! Here's a book that may interest you: https://a.co/d/blKXAby Looking forward to more!
Thank you so much, this is fascinating and this book recommendation looks right up my alley!
Carolyn, this was simply wonderful! Your words met me right when I needed them and I am so appreciative!
So glad you enjoyed it <3
First off, a copy of Winters in the World is finally available for me at the library. Yay! Hoping to pick it up today!
My son sweetly compared the action of baking soda to the feeding of the five thousand while baking simple vegan ginger cookies for our Saint Nicholas Eve gathering earlier this month. I didn’t set up any special demonstration or lecture, but the stories we read and the tasks we do came together in a special way for him.
Kids can see the sacred in the everyday. And those home and agrarian images run through Christ’s parables. Through prayer, the home becomes the little church, crafts or no crafts. ❤️
it's crazy how children notice things! my toddler has started trying to count Jesus's wounds in the crucifix every time we're at church. Kid has no idea there's a whole devotion to those!