ash wednesday brought me face to face with jesus (eventually)

I’d never known was liturgy was, and I figured I sure as hell didn’t want it, until one day in my very early 30’s, I actually saw people with ash on their forehead and, instead of laughing and mocking like I did every other year, I started to wonder what it was, why it was

living liturgically (season one, episode five, christmas 2021)

Mary is still bleeding out from childbirth, her stomach still cramping, stretch marks run along her skin. She picks up Jesus in a daze and pops out a breast, and Jesus latches on to eat. Mary winces as her crackled nipple aches as the child suckles.

living liturgically (season one, episode four, advent 2021)

What I came to realize, right before Christmas, is that instead of focusing on all the terrible things of the past, I can enter Christmas knowing that Jesus has delivered me from those things…

living liturgically (season one, episode two, advent 2021)

“I’m thankful that the trauma that has been suffered by victims of such crimes is being recognized for what it is. If I can’t get justice for the crimes committed against me, if I will be thankful that the trauma of others is being legitimized by verdicts such as these.”

living liturgically (season one, episode one, advent 2021)

I’m a week late, but I shall say happy new year anyway. This is the first Advent that I’ve managed to live the season in any meaningful way, and what I’ve come to realize is that just as suffering can enter me into the story of Jesus, living the liturgical seasons does the same thing