Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

Ses s i on 6: Sp i rograph i ng Sp i r i tua l i t y 121

II. Enrich Spiritual Formation through a Disciplined Observance and Practice of the Christian Year, i.e., Journeying Alone and Together in the Christ Life Is time in your life a constraint or a rhythm? I am afraid that for many of us, including myself, time is seen as a constraint. I often wish I had more time. If only I had more time that lecture would be better prepared, that manuscript would be complete, that relationship with my spouse, my children, my grandchildren, my neighbors, my fellow workers would be better. For many of us the day has too few hours, the week too few days, the month too few weeks. The year has gone by and the projects we have hoped to finish are not yet completed. Oh the tyranny of time! It moves with such speed that hopes are dashed by its quick demise into yesterday, never to be repeated or recovered. But there is another approach to time that avoids the tyranny of constraint. In this practice time is not constrictive but free ing. It is experiencing time as rhythm. We find this practice of time taught in the early church and by contemplatives throughout history. I believe it is possible to borrow the practice of time from the ancients and learn to live in the rhythm of freeing time in the midst of our busy world. ~ Robert Webber. Ancient Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year . Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004. p. 179. The seasons of the liturgical year are all about our journey to God and the transformation of our lives. They seek to change chrono logical time (that is, Chronos ) into sacred time (that is, Kairos ) by steeping us in the mysteries of the Christ event and allowing it to penetrate every dimension of who we are.

Ps. 90.1-6 (ESV) Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. [3] You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” [4] For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. [5] You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: [6] in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

~ Dennis J. Billy. There Is a Season . Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2001. p. xiv.

A. Rediscover the roots of our shared spiritual observance in the divinely mandated practice of the Jewish sacred year and the practice of the Early Church: the cosmic drama of redemption .

1. The observances recall God’s mighty acts of revelation and salvation within the history of his people.

2. The observances reinforce our origins and connections with the people of God, those constituting our sacred roots and spiritual foremothers and forefathers.