All posts filed under: church year and seasons

The 23rd Week After Trinity

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Collect: O God, our refuge and strength, who art the author of all godliness; be ready, we beseech thee, to hear the devout prayers of thy Church; and grant that those things which we ask faithfully we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saint’s Days: Wednesday, November 7: Willibrord Born around 668 in Yorkshire, at six years old, Willibrord was placed in the care of Saint Wilfrid, abbot of the Monastery of Ripon, to be raised as a Benedictine monk. After studying at the renowned schools of Ireland for 12 years, when he was around 30, Willibrord obtained permission to serve as a missionary in Frisia (present-day Holland). The duke of Frisia, Pepin of Herstal was already a Christian and welcomed Willibrord and his companions. After around six years, most of Pepin’s subjects had converted to Christ. At that time, Willibrord was summoned to Pope Sergius in Rome, who changed his religious name to “Clement” and ordained him Archbishop of Frisia. He founded many churches, for he was committed not just to …

Following the Saints Throughout the Year

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When I started writing our Homely Hours weekly post, I didn’t realize that figuring out what saint to write about would be complicated. So, I’ve been very thankful to be able to use the Anglican Ordo Calendar from Whithorn Press. An Ordo Calendar – for those of us new to a liturgical tradition – is a calendar that shows the “order” of the year, with all the saints days included. Because I’ve been receiving questions about what calendar we are using, I thought I would feature it through an interview with its creator, Fr. Brian Foos. And, it seemed appropriate, as we celebrate All Saints’, to also think about how we can be following the saints throughout the year.   Fr. Brian is vicar of St. Andrew’s Church and headmaster at St. Andrew’s Academy in Lake Almanor, California, a small mountain town. He is married to Katy (who, by the way, cooks through the liturgical year – we’re hoping that she will share some of her recipes with us) and the father of 3 teenagers who …

Preparing for All Saints’ Day

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I’ve been working on an explanation of All Saints’ Day that my children can understand. We’re going to start reading it tomorrow (Thursday) and read a section each day as part of our family morning prayer time. Here are the sections: What is a saint? (on holiness and wholeness) Lots of Different Saints (on the variety among God’s saints) How to Be a Saint (on The Communion of the Saints and the Beatitudes) Welcoming the Saints (on the question, why do so many saints die for Jesus?) Death and the Saints (on why sometimes it’s not easy to want to be a saint) Dealing with Scary Things and Halloween (self-explanatory) Today is the Day! (on doing small things with great love) Here is an excerpt: “You may think that to be a saint, you have to be big and do big things for God. This is not true. You need to do the same things that all of us followers of Christ are trying to do – whether we are old or young, big or …

The 21st Week After Trinity

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Collect: Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints Days: Tuesday, October 23: St. James, Brother of our Lord During the ministry of Jesus, his brothers seemed to have been resistant to Him and His claims. But something must have happened to make His brother James change his mind very early on. Perhaps it was during Jesus’s life or, it was when He appeared to James after His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:7). He was the first bishop of Jerusalem. It’s said that he looked so much like Jesus in terms of his physical features that people would go to see him so that they could see what Jesus looked like. The early church historian Hegessippus described James: He used to be found kneeling upon his knees, begging forgiveness for the people — so that the skin of his knees became hard like that of a camel’s, because …

The 19th Week After Trinity

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Collect: “O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Saints Days: Wednesday, October 10: Saint Paulinus Most likely born in Italy at the end of the 6th century, Paulinus was among the group of missionaries sent to England by Pope Gregory in order to help Augustine of Canterbury. When Ethelburga was to marry the king Edwin, Paulinus went with the bride’s party in order to persuade King Edwin to convert to Christianity. The Venerable Bede writes, “Although Paulinus found it difficult to bring the king’s proud mind to accept the humility of the way of salvation or to accept the mystery of the life-giving cross, he nevertheless continued, by words of exhortation addressed to the people, and by words of supplication addressed to the divine compassion, to strive for the conversion of the king and his nation.” After much inner turmoil, King Edwin decided to take the Christian faith, along …

The 18th Week After Trinity

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Collect: Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Saints and Feast Days: Monday, October 1: St. Remigius  Born around 438 to a noble family in Gaul, Saint Remigius was the first and greatest of the French bishops. While very young, he sought the Lord and desired to live like a hermit. For example, he found a secret apartment in his father’s castle where he would retreat whenever possible (by the 9th century, though the castle had crumbled, the apartment was still intact and venerated by pilgrim Christians). He became known and admired for his piety. When he was only twenty-two, despite his protests, he was consecrated bishop! Meanwhile, Clovis was the king of the Franks– a remarkable military leader, unifying his people when only fifteen years old. He was a pagan, married to a Christian woman name Clothilda who tried to convince her husband to believe …

The 16th Week After Trinity

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Collect: “O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints and Feasts of the Week: September 17 (Monday, transferred from the 16th): St. Ninian St. Ninian of Galloway, the missionary to Scotland, lived from around 350-432, almost at the same time as St. Augustine. He was the son of a chieftain who had become a Christian. His father allowed him to make a pilgramage to Rome as a young man and he walked the 1500 miles in 6 months. He spent several years in Rome in a monastic community, meeting St. Ambrose and St. Jerome and then was sent as a missionary back to the Scottish wilderness. On his way home, he encountered the monastery of Martin of Tours– which essentially was a wooden cell with others clustered around it. The simplicity and austerity of this life seemed to have impressed him. When he returned, he …

The 15th Week after Trinity

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Collect: Keep, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints and Feast Days: September 12 (Wednesday): John Henry Hobart Born in Philadelphia in 1775, John Henry Hobart played a vital role in building the Episcopal church in America after the Revolutionary War. At that point, many Americans viewed the Anglican church as an entity to be done away with, along with English rule. John Hobart was part of the new generation that rebuilt the Episcopal order and made it a living church, rather than a dying establishment.  Because he defended apostolic succession, he caused a great amount of controversy in his day. He wrote several books — including A Companion for the Altar, the first devotional manual in the American Church — and founded the Bible and Prayer Book Society, among many other societies. His life work …

The 14th Week of Trinity

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Collect for the Week:  Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Saints and Other Feast Days: September 2: The Martyrs of Papua New Guinea On this day, we remember the two martyrdom events that took place in Papua New Guinea in the 20th century. In 1901, two missionaries and their companions, James Chalmers and Oliver Tomkins, met their death by martyrdom. Then, during WWII, the Japanese invaded Papua New Guinea and killed 333 church workers, which included twelve Anglicans. When they knew the Japanese invasion was impending, the Bishop Philip Strong broadcasted a message to his fellow workers: “We could never hold up our faces again, if for our own safety, we all forsook him and fled when the shadows of the passion began to gather around him in his spiritual body, the Church in Papua.  . . God will not forsake us. He …

Advent Plans

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This year, our family is going to take advantage of our Homely Hours preparation and posts from the last two years. Here is how that will look: Jesus Tree Ornament.  Bley designed these beautiful ornaments (pictured above) several years ago.  I printed them out last year in card stock, hole punched the top and added red yarn to hang on our Christmas tree. We’ll do this as part of our family’s little evening prayer time. Additionally, we’ll use our church’s Advent Wreath prayers at dinner time. St. Nicholas Day We may use Bley’s adorable St. Nicholas Day Treat Bags. We’ll see if I can get that together. But I do plan to buy my girls Christmas shoes and fill them with the traditional gifts: gold chocolate coins I snagged at Trader Joe’s, a candy cane, and a clementine. I’ll probably buy The Baker’s Dozen to read and, I’ll definitely print out Michelle’s Advent Saints Coloring Pages. St. Lucy In addition to those coloring pages, last year I printed out two copies of the St. Lucy Crown Printable. …