The Fruits of Ordinary Time
A note from the editors about Ordinary Time, scheduling, and how you can help grow the Guild
Hello, everyone, and Happy Ordinary Time!
How lovely it is, after all the fasting and feasting and special (but tiring) efforts and activities of Eastertide, to settle into a relaxed, normal, comforting Liturgical routine for a little while. Whether it’s summer or winter in your part of the world right now, there’s something natural about having a time of the year in which the Church cycles are less demanding and we can just enjoying the ordinary/extraordinary goodness of worship: our ordinary (yet awe-inspiring) Sunday services, our home traditions of French toast for breakfast on Solemnities or our family feast days, and the tending of our spiritual garden in a time of fruitful, ordinary living.
This natural rhythm has lately inspired us to make a few changes in our deadlines and posting schedule at Signs + Seasons so that we can better honor the ups and downs of the year. Mainly, my fellow editors
and and I have noticed that there is a tremendous glut of submissions and questions on Liturgical Living around the high Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas, as well as in the penitential and preparatory seasons of Lent and Advent. What a rich gift this is! During the time between the Easter Octave and Hallowtide in the Fall, however, most of us tend to turn our attention away from the great dramas and contrasts of our Church year and just enjoy living in the simple rhythms of the “Green” space on the calendar.So at these times, there is less going on in the Liturgical Living online world, though there is still plenty of living going on.
What does this mean for Signs + Seasons?
In short, it means that we’ll be posting quite frequently at some times in the year and less frequently at others. During these current months of Ordinary Time (the summer where we three live, mainly), for example, we won’t be posting monthly. But come Autumn, we’ll be back to a rigorous posting schedule!
So, we can expect the coming year to look something like this:
A round-up post in early August covering Ordinary Time, midyear feast days, and any other, broadly-envisioned Liturgical Living articles that catch our eye or pop into our inbox.
A post in late October or early November about Hallowtide and other feasts between August 1 or so and that post.
Regular, more frequent posts as we gear up for and enjoy Advent and Christmas!
And we’ll plant continue on from there in a similar pattern through the post-Christmas brief stint in Ordinary Time and then into Lent and Eastertide.
What does this mean for submission deadlines? How can I contribute?
Good question! It means that you should continue to send us posts that you have written or that catch your eye at any point in the season, up until a final deadline that will be sent to subscribers and posted in Notes in the month before each post goes live. Don’t worry — we’ll make sure you hear from us in plenty of time.
So, for example, for our August 1 post, please send us your submissions by July 26 — but do also send them anytime before then! And we will remind you in July, with plenty of time to spare. In other words, send us your stuff, and we’ll do the rest.
You can e-mail us at signsandseasonsguild [at] gmail [dot] com at any point. Please feel free to reach out with questions or thoughts or to share your ideas and submissions!
Learn more about how to submit your articles or otherwise be a part of the Guild by clicking the button below.
How else can I be involved and support the Guild?
You can subscribe, if you haven’t already, and you can also share our posts and comment on them in order to support and expand our work together as a thriving Liturgical Living Guild of nearly 1400 member-subscribers (WHAT?! Yes! We are so blessed!).
Let’s work together to increase our rich base of members so that we can keep this beautiful sharing going and continue to encourage — but never burden — each other in loving our Lord and one another through Liturgical Living.
And you can pray for us and for everyone who reads Signs + Seasons, as we pray for you. We are so grateful for you!
Your sisters in Christ,