PRACTICE & PRAY: Ordinary Sabbath

A Restful Ordinary Time

Blessed Ordinary Time, friends!

Today’s Practice & Pray letter includes:

• An excerpt from my book to introduce Ordinary Time

• A look ahead to A Restful Ordinary Time

• The church’s scripture, prayer, and practices for this Sunday

Plus, for paid subscribers only

• Art and music to celebrate today in the church calendar

• A guided contemplative prayer to help us meditate on today’s art

• A suggested practice for keeping the Sabbath

Let's begin with an excerpt from The Spacious Path to introduce us to the season of Ordinary Time:

Ordinary and Extraordinary Time

Ordinary Time is the longest season in the church calendar. Some churches refer to these weeks as “weeks after Pentecost,” beginning with the first Sunday after Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday. Other churches refer to this time on the calendar as “weeks of Ordinary Time” (as in, “Today is Tuesday, the eleventh of September in the twenty-eighth week of Ordinary Time”). There are a few more variations, but I’ve found it more fruitful to worry less about what to call these weeks between Pentecost and Advent and instead to focus and become more deeply formed in the theology of the church’s intentions. What does it mean that half of our calendar is left open to the ordinary? What does it tell us about the God who created and gives purpose to our lives?

A helpful place to begin answering this question is by prayerfully considering the parts of Christ’s life that scriptures tell us almost nothing about. You could say that the years between his toddler days, which were spent migrating to various parts of the world as his parents sought refuge from Herod, to the beginning of his more formal ministry, marked by his baptism in the Jordan River, were the Ordinary Time of Jesus’ life, as they make up the majority of all of his days on earth.

What does it mean that half of our calendar is left open to the ordinary? What does it tell us about the God who created and gives purpose to our lives? If the historic liturgical calendar teaches us to number our days to gain a heart of wisdom, there must be a lot of wisdom to be gained in our regular working, resting, and worshiping lives. This is the model Christ seemed to have lived by, and the church invites us to embrace the same pathway.

During Ordinary Time this year, I’ll curate art, music, readings, and practices from three sources for paid subscribers

1. Weekly readings and suggested practices from my book The Spacious Path: Practicing the Restful Way of Jesus in a Fragmented World. While it’s not necessary to purchase the book to follow along with us, I’d be grateful if you did!

2. Occasional recordings of conversations with friends about practicing the restful way of Jesus in their actual lives.

3. Art and song selections from all of my favorite sources!

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Community Practice & Prayer

Read today’s lectionary passages from the Book of Common Prayer (Year B)

Deuteronomy 5:6-21; Psalm 81:1-16; 2 Corinthians 4:1-12; Mark 2:23-28

Pray out loud the Collect for Proper 4 from the Book of Common Prayer.

O God, the protector of all those who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy, that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal; grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Keep practicing and praying the daily office from the Book of Common Prayer

You can find the Daily Office Lectionary, Morning and Evening prayer from the Book of Common Prayer here: https://apostlesct.org/daily-office

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Contemplative Practice & Prayer

Prayerfully contemplate and respond to today’s art and music pairing.

LISTEN

Enjoy this playlist I created to accompany Part 3 of my book: Keeping Ordinary Time

LOOK

I truly enjoyed discovering the two images I’m sharing today, and I hope you’ll enjoy them, too. (Please feel free to use the 7-day free trial to unlock the paywall so you can enjoy the rest of today’s letter.)