In his book Sabbath, Wayne Muller notes that the two words for "busy" in Chinese are the pictographs for "killing" and "heart." Do you feel that is ever true for you - that your busy-ness can kill your heart - or the heart of your family? We have this hunch that if families lived in a "sacred" rhythm, hearts would be strengthened, not killed. We found two ancient pieces of faith to be extremely powerful in helping us live in a new rhythm, to a song in tune with God. One was monasticism; the other was the Christian calendar.
Monasticism teaches one how to live in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms. It sees the importance of rest balanced with work, play balanced with study, prayer balanced with service. The prayer practices of the old and new monastics has taught us how to see God interwoven into every moment of our lives.
The Christian calendar helps us to know how our story and God's story connect. The Christian calendar has taught us to fast and to feast - or you could say "live simply" and "celebrate" or "let go" and "party joyfully." The Christian calendar has helped us to explore what it means to live in the time between fasting and feasting, finding ways to be intentional in our churches, our families, our friends, our work places, our neighborhoods, and our world.
We invite you to read our essays and reflections, come to one our gatherings or classes, give us a call, or use the following resources as you try to live in life-giving rhythm with your family and faith community.
Monastic Daily Prayer Practices
- Each day, we use the prayer book Celtic Daily Prayer by the Northumbria Community of Northern England, www.northumbriacommunity.org.
- With our youngest children (kindergarten and under), we like Phyllis Tickle's This Is What I Pray Today.
- For those of us who love our iPods, MP3 players, and computers, we use www.pray-as-you-go.org.
The Christian Calendar
• A Brief Introduction to the Christian Calendar
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We no longer use a calendar whose PRIMARY organization is the months of the year, but whose PRIMARY focus is God's story through the year. The Story-Formed Calendar lists the months and days, but frames them in the seasons of the church year with photographs that tell the story of that time and place. To learn more, go to http://StoryFormed.wordpress.com or to order the calendar, email Tara Malouf at tara@redthreadphoto.com or call (253) 777-0216.
Learn More About Living in Rhythm
• To learn more about Sabbath and rest, read Wayne Muller's Sabbath or Dr. Christine Sine's GodSpace. Christine Sine and her husband, Tom, strive to live in rhythm as they lead the Mustard Seed Associates, www.msainfo.org.
• Two books that we love and that are full of creative ideas and insights for families striving to live out the Christian year are Gertrude Mueller Nelson's To Dance With God and David Batchelder's All Through the Day, All Through the Year.
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