Vol. 1, Issue 8: May
The paradox of spring & summer
From the editor
Do you also feel the shift that happens in May? Our days lengthen and warm, chirping birds awaken our kids with increasingly earlier sunrises, and we find ourselves breathlessly running toward the finish line of “summer” - whatever that looks like in our various home, church, & school situations.
In so many ways, we’ve already arrived, though. Our modern calendar tells us we’re still in spring…but there’s a lot of wisdom to be gleaned from the Anglo-Saxon reckoning of seasons, which placed the first day of summer on May 9th1: just about halfway between the Spring Equinox (the Annunciation) and Midsummer (St. John’s Day).
The seasons wordlessly communicate this shift to us, and the liturgical calendar amplifies and gives meaning to it: we’ve crossed the Ascension, which marks Jesus’ earthly departure after his resurrection, leaving the Apostles bereft. As I write this, we’re in the pregnant waiting space between Ascension and Pentecost, which will bookmark our journey through Eastertide and usher us into the second iteration of Ordinary Time…which is also the longest season of the Church year, stretching from summer and through fall.
So, as we find ourselves in the May-time of transition, with changes in the natural seasons and in our own life circumstances, the liturgical calendar gives us the twin offering of patience and paradox: we sit with the Apostles between the Ascension and Pentecost, waiting for the summertime gift of flaming tongues that calls us out into our world, infused with a strength that can only come through loss.
As we’re all busy adjusting to spring & summer in our own varied places, we’re keeping today’s issue light - with just a few articles hand-picked for you to peruse as we close out the month. We’re also reaching back to the end of April, with some ideas to hang onto for next year.
Wishing you & yours a fruitful Pentecost! (See what I did there?)
Pax vobis,
Pentecost
Six Tips to Help you Celebrate Pentecost
Okay folks, bear with me - it’s unprecedented here to link to a brief Instagram post rather than a longer-form piece, but this is a fun & meaningful one. Steffani of His Girl Sunday brought some of us together to each share one idea for celebrating Pentecost, accompanied by the visual of all of us passing a lit taper from person to person. She features liturgical writers hailing from a variety of denominations, making it such a fitting, symbolic little video for the Church’s birthday.
Pentecost is this Sunday and the fire of the Holy Spirit is moving from state to state! The liturgical living ladies have compiled 6 simple, fun, and family friendly ways to have a memorable time.
Watch the video on Instagram, and view the 6 ideas, here!
Ascension
A round-up looking back to Ascension Thursday, which was on May 9 this year - hold onto these posts for next year’s celebration!
The Ascension
offers us such a poignant reflection on the Ascension of Jesus - both through liturgy, and through imaginative framing that helps us better understand the profundity of what the Apostles faced on this day.It is worth the shedding of old familiar ways--to stand in anticipation of the new world that is to come riding high on the clouds. Jesus waited patiently for this day and traveled down to it with his apostles every step of the way--up until the very end when He knew they were ready to let Him go.
Read all of Denise’s piece here!
so all the chorus sang / Of heav'nly birds, as to the stars they nimbly sprang
, who lives in South Africa, offers an illuminating perspective on the celebration of the Ascension in the Southern Hemisphere. These are important reminders for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, since so many of the liturgical traditions passed on over generations have their roots in Northern seasons:Ascension Day falls at the beginning of Autumn, rather than Spring. We’ve passed the Autumn equinox, and so the temperature is getting crisper, the sun is rising a bit later, and in our area, we often get windier days as cold fronts blow in from the mountains.
Steph so kindly wrote this as a guest post for
- read the whole piece here!
Reflections on Ascension
This Plough piece, featuring glorious the poetry of Oscar Romero, deserves some dedicated time to really sit with and chew on as we approach Pentecost.
And so Christ’s ascension proclaims
that the whole creation
will also be redeemed in him,
because he will give the meaning
of all that God has created…
Read the Plough Magazine piece here! (Shared by
and brought to my attention by !)
Know someone who might enjoy the topics covered in this month’s issue of Signs + Seasons? We’d be honored if you’d share this post with them!
St. Mark’s Day
A round-up looking back to April 25 - hold onto these posts for next year!
As long before St. Mark’s Day as the frogs are heard croaking
| S+S EDITOR |
…[St. Mark’s] feast was an opportunity for communities to rally around their farmland and invite blessings upon it, amidst all the uncertainties encapsulated in the wistful hope of springtime planting.
This same day was, paradoxically, also a fast day; coinciding with the ancient tradition of the Major Rogation, litanies were prayed, fasts kept, and farmers were even asked to cease plowing for the day.
Read Kristin’s reflection here!
gather: St. Mark’s field blessing
| S+S EDITOR |
What I stumbled upon in my reading and my ponderings was a paradoxical celebration: both feast and fast, a potently transitional feast that almost had the flavor of a springtime Hallowe’en, peculiar as that may seem. And it’s fitting: St. Mark, “Master of Weather,” is celebrated during temperamental April…a springtime month that seems to go back and forth between storm & sunshine in moments.
Read more here!
Join us next month for more Signs + Seasons!
Publication Date: June 15, 2024
Submission Deadline: June 10, 2024
Themes/Recommended Prompts: Ordinary Time II, St. John the Baptist, Sts. Peter & Paul…
We hope that you’re enjoying a beautiful, productive spring as we edge toward the closure of Eastertide - and the opening of a new season to come!
In Christ,
Kristin, Sara, & Dixie
In fact, the action of Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream actually occurrs on the eve of May Day, since May was the beginning of summer for the Elizabethans…and Midsummer in June was, appropriately, the middle of summer.
I learn sooooo much from you all at Signs + Seasons--thank you for this inspiring and beautiful round up and the vintage illustrations. Perfect!
Hey Kristin! I am reading a biography of Sigrid Undset, and a quote from her reminded me of your Substack. You may have heard it before, but I’ll share: in an essay about poems by D.H. Lawrence, Undset judged them as “a perfect expression of man’s primeval instinct for picturing his own spiritual life through flowers and tortoises and mountains and heraldic figures — through anything non-human”