A Sacred Journey

practicing pilgrimage at home and abroad

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1|E4: Epiphany

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1|E4: Epiphany

It’s January 6, the feast of Epiphany!

The twelve days of the Christmas season ended yesterday and today’s feast serves as a capstone to the cycle of light and a group of seasons in which we remember God with us. In the fourth episode of the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, Jenn and I look back on our Christmas celebrations, talk about the feast of Epiphany (one of my favorite times in the liturgical year!), and prepare for the season to come.

Listen/download below or through iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and catch up on past episodes here. And if you like what you hear, would you mind sharing it on social media and leaving a review? Here’s how.

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Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1|E3: Christmas + Christmastide

SOD Podcast: Christmas + Christmastide

The wait is almost over—Christmas is nearly here!

We’re marking the transition in the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast with a new episode on Christmas and Christmastide—perfect for listening to as you prepare for guests or journey out of town for your Christmas celebration.

In this episode we explore themes and traditions associated with Christmas and discuss what it’s like to start new traditions and celebrate the full twelve days of the Christmas season, also known as “Christmastide.”

Listen/download below or through iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and catch up on past episodes here. And if you like what you hear, would you mind sharing it on social media and leaving a review? It helps spread the word, and I’ll be giving away a Sacred Seasons calendar or hand-lettered print to one lucky reviewer who leaves a review of the podcast on iTunes between now and our next episode on January 6! Here’s how to leave a review »

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Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1|E2: Advent

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast, S1 | E2: Advent
Did you listen to the first episode of the Sacred Ordinary Days podcast last week?

After last week’s introductory episode, we’re ready to dig in. This week we’re starting right where we are with the season of Advent—the first season of the liturgical year—and are sharing favorite themes and practices as we embrace the invitations of the current liturgical season and prepare for Christmas, the season to come.

Listen/download below or through iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and catch up on past episodes here. And if you like what you hear, would you mind sharing it on social media and leaving a review? It helps spread the word! Here’s how to leave a review on iTunes.

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Introducing the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast! Listen Now…

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast: Season 1, Episode 1
I’ve been hinting at it for a few weeks now and the day has finally come! The Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast is here—just in time for the season of Advent and the new liturgical year.

I was so excited when Jenn Giles Kemper of sacredordinarydays.com invited me to join her in her new podcasting venture. It seems like everyone is podcasting these days, and while I was curious about what that might look like for me, starting one myself seemed like a bit of a stretch. However, recording conversations with a dear friend and colleague about spiritual formation and the spiritual journey? I’m in!

Given our shared interest in the liturgical seasons and our desire to share its gifts with others (I’ve recently released my Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar and Jenn is the creator of the Sacred Ordinary Days liturgical day planner), this season we’ll be focusing on the Liturgical Calendar with conversations about each liturgical season in real time.

You can listen to our introductory conversation below, and Advent and Christmas won’t be far behind! You can also subscribe to the Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast in iTunes or your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss a thing. (And while you’re there, leave a review, will you? It helps spread the word.)

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2015 Gift Guide for the Seeker at Heart

seeker-gift-guide-2015

During the season of Advent we not only wait with longing—we also prepare with anticipation for what is to come.

For many of us, this means exchanging gifts with family and friends when Christmas comes. Here’s a gift guide for the loved one in your life who is a seeker at heart and a lover of infusing both their travels and everyday life with spirituality and intention. (Check out last year’s gift guides for the Seeker of the Sacred and the Intentional Traveler for more inspiration.)

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The Beginning of Advent: What’s Stirring Within You?

Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar » https://asacredjourney.net/shop

Today marks the first day of Advent and a new cycle of the liturgical year in the Church. Since I’ve just released my Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar (take a peek at the Advent page above), I thought this would be a great opportunity to share with you an excerpt from the calendar on the season of Advent. Blessings to you as you enter this season of waiting and longing, keeping vigil as hope draws near.

 

In the Northern Hemisphere, the season of Advent comes at a time when the earth is dark and dormant.

The last leaves are falling from autumn’s colorful trees as the days grow colder and the nights grow longer, readying the earth and its creatures for a season of stillness and hibernation. This growing darkness pulls us inside our homes as well as inside ourselves, inviting us to examine our places of darkness and longing and to wait with faithfulness, keeping vigil as we hold out hope for the light.

This is where the Church calendar begins—not with the certainty and fulfillment sung by the angels at Christmas time, but rather with the strain that such deep yearning brings. Like Mary pregnant with the Christ child, we start the year not with the joy and relief that comes with birth but in the womb—the mysterious place in which hope is conceived and new life is formed.

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It’s Here! The Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar (+ an all-new journey shop!)

Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar » https://asacredjourney.net/shop

It’s here! The Sacred Seasons liturgical wall calendar is now available in the (new!) Journey Shop.

I’ve been working on the Sacred Seasons liturgical calendar since the beginning of summer, and more specifically since listening to Rob Bell’s interview with one of my all-time favorite journey guides and spiritual midwives, Elizabeth Gilbert (download it now and listen on repeat—you won’t regret it). They were exploring the topic of Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, and something they said in the interview grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go when it comes to creativity: create the thing you can’t help but create. 

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3 Ways to Make Your Own Labyrinth

This month in the Journey Book Club we’re reading about one of my favorite tools for the journey: the labyrinth.

Labyrinths—maze-like formations with single, unhindered paths that lead to and from the center—have been used as spiritual tools throughout millennia and across traditions. As humanity entered a new season of awakening over the past few decades, the labyrinth has experienced a resurgence in popularity, becoming a well-known spiritual practice and commonly used tool for the journey.

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#GlimsesOfGratitude: Cultivating a Gratitude Practice by Noticing What Shimmers

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If there were a spiritual practice assigned to the month of November, it would undoubtedly be the practice of gratitude.

With the Feasts of All Saints’ and All Souls’ and Thanksgiving (at least here in the US) acting as bookends for the season, we begin the month of November by expressing gratitude for those who have gone before us through the practice of remembrance and end the month—and the liturgical year—surrounded by loved ones as we feast and give thanks for the blessings in our lives.

The practice of gratitude has especially grown in popularity over the past few years, even in seemingly-secular realms. A google search for “practicing gratitude” came back with over 5 million hits, including articles from popular periodicals and online news sources such as Psychology Today and The Huffington Post, many of which tout the benefits of the practice. Even Oprah keeps a gratitude journal these days, most likely inspiring millions of others to follow suit.

It seems that whether it’s Thanksgiving day or a Tuesday in April, gratitude is in the air, and that’s something to be grateful for, because these glimpses of gratitude—like any spiritual practice—call us to return and remember, serving as invitations to ponder what we, too, are grateful for and encouraging us to cultivate a gratitude practice of our own.

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10 Ways to Remember Those Who Have Gone Before You for All Saints’ and All Souls’

10 Ways to Remember Those Who Have Gone Before You for All Saints' and All Souls'

As we continue the pattern of moving inward during the season of autumn, it is natural that we call to mind those who have gone before us, whether in faith, in life, or in our own personal journey.

The beginning of November calls us to do just that, with the Feast of All Saints falling on the first of November and the Feast of All Souls following on the second. Both feast days invite us to remember the “great cloud of witnesses” mentioned in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews—both for the Church as a whole as well as for us individually—honoring their memory and reflecting on their impact on our spiritual journeys.

Traditionally, the period around All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (as well as their predecessor, All Hallow’s Eve) is a liminal one—a time when the veil between heaven and earth is thin. When we apply this intention to this season of turning inward, calling forth the memory of the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, those who have gone before us can seem especially close.

As we turn our attention to those who have passed, including the saints of the Church who live on in practice and or our own ancestors who live on in memory, I find it important to also remember those who might be still with us and have contributed to our own personal journey, helping to shape who we are today.

Here are 10 ways to remember those who have gone before you on All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and throughout the month of November and the season of remembrance:

REMEMBERING THE SAINTS

REMEMBERING YOUR ANCESTORS

  • Go through a photo album containing images of family members who have passed, sparking memories of times gone by
  • Discover unknown ancestors by doing ancestry research through ancestry.com
  • Reflect on traits, values, and patterns that have been passed down to you through generations—both blessings and challenges—celebrating the gifts and setting an intention to pursue healing where needed

REMEMBERING YOUR MENTORS + GUIDES

  • Reflect on who you feel has contributed significantly to your journey, whether teachers, authors, ministers, or friends
  • Reach out to those with whom you are in contact and tell them how much their presence in your life has shaped you
  • Revisit the works of favorite authors or activists who have influenced your journey along the way

GO FURTHER…

As you practice remembering the saints, remembering your ancestors, and remembering your mentors and guides, create an altar of remembrance somewhere in your home that you pass regularly, placing on it images and artifacts that will call you to remember those who have gone before you each day.

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