How the Seasons of the Spiritual Life Correspond to the Seasons of the Church Year
If you belong to a church within a liturgical tradition, you are probably familiar with the Christian Calendar. Each year, the Calendar invites us into different season which tell the story of Jesus and the Church. The Church Calendar, however, not only recounts different parts of the Biblical/Christian story, it also invites us into different ways of responding to the Lord in each season.
As I have reflected upon the Church seasons, I have noticed that each liturgical season seems to primarily correspond with one of the seasons of the spiritual life. This is interesting because depending on what spiritual season we are inhabiting at a particular moment in time, we may find that we experience a deep resonance with that liturgical season or a feeling of dissonance with that season. I’ll speak more about this phenomenon and its implications for us shortly, but let’s first explore this idea that the liturgical seasons correspond with the spiritual seasons. (If you haven’t read about the spiritual seasons yet, be sure to start by reading here.)
Advent seems to best correspond with a Winter Spiritual Season. It invites us into a time of waiting and trusting as we put ourselves in the shoes of the ancient Israelites and wait for the coming Messiah, and as we also wait for Jesus to come again at the end of time. If we come from a tradition that has a strain of repentance in its celebration of Advent, then there is also a correspondence between Advent and the Autumn Spiritual Season. We are invited into a place of deep self-reflection, releasing, pruning, and confession.
Christmastide best corresponds to a Summer Spiritual Season. We are invited into a time of joyful celebration, passionate worship, and communion with our Lord.
Epiphany seems to also best correspond with a Winter Spiritual Season, but for different reasons than Advent does. Epiphany is a time of unveiling and illumination, a time when the identity of Jesus is revealed to us more and more in the Scriptures that we read during this season. We are invited into a place of deepening belief and trust in the Lord.
Lent clearly best corresponds to the Autumn Spiritual Season. We are invited into a time of confession, repentance, release, dying to self, detachment from unhealthy attachments, and openness to God to heal us and bring about spiritual maturity within us.
Eastertide best corresponds to both a Spring Spiritual Season and a Summer Spiritual Season. We are invited into a place of renewal, rebirth, celebration, joyful worship, and communion with God.
Pentecost seems to best correspond to a Spring Spiritual Season. As we remember the birth of the church and the empowering of God’s people to share the Gospel both in word and deed, we are invited to open ourselves up to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are called to a place of engagement with the world, discernment of our unique gifting and call, awakening love for God and others, and great fruitfulness.
Ordinary Time seems to correspond to a Winter Spiritual Season where we are invited to trust, believe, and rest in the Lord.
Experiencing Dissonance with the Current Liturgical Season
The Christian calendar provides a wonderful way for us to enter into the Christian story more deeply and to respond to the Lord in various ways – ways that allow us to deepen our faith in Him and to grow in intimacy with Him. Thus, we do well to respond to the invitations that each season offers us. That being said, we will sometimes find that our current spiritual season contrasts with our current liturgical season.
For example, I once had a spiritual directee who was experiencing a Summer joy as she entered into the season of Lent. She had a keen sense of wanting to delight in the Lord and seek out deep communion with Him. While I encouraged her to find ways to enter into the Lent rhythm, I also encouraged her to not ignore this Summer invitation that the Lord was clearly giving her. As she went off on retreat at the start of the season, I encouraged her to find ways to delight in and worship the Lord with joy and gladness.
As another example, at times, I have found myself in an Autumn Season during Eastertide, a reality that has been precipitated by some recent challenging life event. While I did try to enter into the joy of the season in these times, I didn’t try to work up an exuberant, joyful state in myself that did not exist. Rather, I thanked God for the good gifts of Easter while at the same time staying in touch with where I was. The joy I experienced was more of a subtle or solemn joy that stayed in touch with the grief or sadness I was currently experiencing.
The reason I mention this is because it is important to remain attentive to what God is doing in us and understand why sometimes we feel great resonance with a liturgical season and other times we feel great dissonance. God is speaking to us in that resonance or dissonance, and as we listen to Him, we’ll come to experience God’s love for us in that season and discover the ways He is uniquely calling us to deeper love and intimacy with Him in this time and place.