And after seven nights
of summer's brightness Weed-month slips
into the dwellings, everywhere August brings
to all peoples Lammas Day; so the harvest comes,
after that number of nights but one,
bright, laden with fruits. Plenty is revealed,
beautiful upon the earth. Then, after three nights,
the loyal prince went forth in martyrdom,
the glorious deacon, Lawrence; for that he now has life
with the Father of Glory, a reward for his works.
And five nights after this the fairest of maidens,
glory of women, sought the Lord of Hosts
because of kinship with her son, a victorious home
in the fields of Paradise. The Saviour repaid the virgin
for his fostering with a fair reward,
life in eternity. Ten nights after that
is always celebrated here in Britain
the feast of Bartholomew,
an excellent event. And likewise after four nights
is brought to fruition among men, far and wide,
the death of the noble one, he who long ago
sprinkled with water the Prince of Glory,
the warrior most worthily. Of him the Ruler said
that no more glorious person would be born
of man and woman in this world.

Excerpt from the Anglo-Saxon Menologium (10th c.), translated by Dr. Eleanor Parker

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Founder Box announcements

• AUGUST 1 | Saturday | Deadline for signing up as a Founding Member in time to begin your shipments with the Autumn Box!
  

Online gatherings

• As I’m on sabbatical this month, there will be a pause in online gatherings - see you in September!1

Fresh Posts & Previous Archives

• AUGUST 1 | Saturday | Lammas
  

• AUGUST 10 | Monday | St. Lawrence’s Day
  » Printables: Cover page and Book of Hours pages

• AUGUST 15 | Saturday | Assumption
  » Printables: Stella Maris soda recipe
  

• AUGUST 24 | Monday | Bartlemas
  » Printables: Cover page, paper scene, gazpacho recipe

+ August 2026 Calendar & Coloring

The August Almanac includes:

• August calendar page with a selection of holy days, dip-pen illustrations, and links to connect you with more HF resources

• Coloring page featuring my hand-drawn illustrations of August feast emblems

• Print out these goodies (I recommend card-stock for the calendar and regular paper for the coloring page), and see how you can integrate the featured holidays into your existing plans!

Give a gift subscription

+ August Bookmarks

Refer a friend

As you keep sifting through your summer TBR pile, here’s a set of floral bookmarks!

• Just print the bookmarks - each flower symbolic of a feast in August - fold them, and let them adorn your books.

• Maybe you want to mark multiple pages in a single volume (you’ll have a lovely bouquet!)…or maybe you want to use a bookmark for each book in your nightstand stack. However you choose to use these, each flower is a lovely prompt to remind you to pause for the feast day it symbolizes.

Head to the Scriptorium to find your August printables:

Scriptorium

In lieu of a new festal focus during my sabbatical month, take a peek at this month’s archived feasts:

August

From our modern, digital era, I find that it’s easy to slip into really anachronistic thinking about the history of the Church calendar. With the whole swath of feast days available in an instant, it can also feel as if the calendar itself were just as instantaneous…as if it had just appeared, as-is. This, of course, invites scrupulosity…assuming that however we receive the calendar now, this is how it ‘should’ be celebrated, always has been celebrated, and always will be. In other words, I can easily take for granted the current form of this infrastructure that we’ve inherited.

It’s also easy to fall into a ‘catch ‘em all’ mindset, as if we need to grind our way through every current dedication of the modern calendar.

This overview by the late Father Richard Nardone, though - The Story of the Christian Year - is one of the most impactful books I’ve found in widening (and deepening) my perspective of our faith history of sacred timekeeping.

Read more

Under the wanton Rose agen,
That blushes for penitent Magdalen…

Flower calendar, quoted in Richard Folkard’s Plant Lore, Legends, & Lyrics

Wander & wonder…

• find this month’s schedule of events in the Village Green

• peruse the July Almanac

• explore more posts for the month of July

• send me a note!

MAUDELEYN DAY PRINTABLES

A Book of Hours helps us to graft liturgical traditions into our own sacred days - and each month, I offer some additions intended to spark curiosity as we re-discover these seasonal patterns together.

This month, you’ll find:

• a cover page (with original art featuring the Collared Dove and Maudlin Daisy - more details about their symbolism are in the printable!)

• a summary (with artwork) of history, traditions, flora, & fauna that give shape to the holiday

Paid members can find Maudlintide art & resources (as well as my whole archive of printables) in the Scriptorium:

Scriptorium

One that lives by other’s breath

Seely stars must needs leave shining
When the sun is shadowed,
Borrow’d streams refrain their running
When head springs are hindered:
One that lives by other’s breath,
Dieth also by his death.

Robert Southwell, excerpt from Mary Magdalen’s Complaint at Christ’s Death (16th c.)

Of the many gifts we receive in St. Mary Magdalene, the most fruitful may be - strangely - the uncertainty that veils her life story.

At the intersection of what we know about her & what we think we know about her, we find our own reflections starting back at us.

Mary’s geography seems to name her - given her title in Scripture, she probably hailed from Magdala, a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. We know that when she encountered Jesus, she did so wholly - he banished seven demons from her1…a Scriptural number that always signals us to see completeness. In that encounter, she was entirely healed and transformed by Christ.

And with that gift of wholeness came a response of wholeness - complete devotion to Jesus, like a symptom of her total healing. In the miraculous banishment of her demons came a movement from total disintegration to thorough integration - with Jesus.

So, she abided with him. Mary followed him to the foot of the Cross, and, grief-stricken, pursued him even further - anointing spices in tow - after his death & burial in the tomb.2

It was a devastated Magdalene, then, who brought her pain to Christ’s tomb, only to find it empty. And there, in the midst of her desolation, she was greeted by the Gardener - the risen Christ, at first obscured by her own surprise.3

Mary brought that encounter forward, running to tell the other disciples - Apostle to the Apostles. Bearer of the anointing spices of death, now bearer of the new era broken through…God risen here, gardening among us again.

But let’s call to mind what we assume of St. Mary Magdalene…all those assumptions that make her deliverance feel even more astonishing: we think of her former life as one of debauchery, prostitution, total moral depravity.4

Scripture never actually tells us what Mary’s seven demons are, though. Her connections with the unnamed ‘sinful woman’ or the woman ‘caught in the act of adultery’ were drawn in Western tradition, but Eastern tradition held that the Magdalene’s demons represented spiritual affliction.

In the Western Church, all sorts of connections were applied to the Magdalene - into her life, tradition grafted Mary, the sister of Martha & Lazarus…the sinful woman washing Jesus’ feet with her hair…the woman about to be stoned.

Here’s the thing, though: those conflations of St. Mary Magdalene are not devoid of value.

In the confusion - and in the immense popularity of the Magdalene & the murky details of her life story - we find the most desperate, pained, damaged parts of ourselves finding a home. Home in a woman who followed God to the grave and saw him walk away from it, leaving footprints of our own salvation in a new Garden.

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In her obscured story, we learn something…recognize the familiar, wrenching pain of our own stories. The broken relationships, the habits that we cling to, the failed attempts at change all find an envoy in the Magdalene, just as all those other named and unnamed women from the Bible found themselves in her story over the centuries.

Of course, we can lose our balance if we apply too much of ourselves to these real people…and yet, the story of our interaction - our ongoing dialogue - with Christ’s saints matters. It reveals our sharpest edges and most profound needs.

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you came with springing tears to the spring of mercy

St Mary Magdalene, you came with springing tears to the spring of mercy, Christ; from him your burning thirst was abundantly refreshed through him your sins were forgiven; by him your bitter sorrow was consoled.

St. Anselm, excerpt from his Prayer to St. Mary Magdalene (11th c.)

The Magdalene’s popularity grew, and she became one of the most widely celebrated saints of the Middle Ages. She had moved from complete destitution to complete devotion - what all our souls long for - and even the name of her feast day came to represent that transformative devotion.

In Middle English, the final ‘e’ of her name was dropped, and its pronunciation continued to shorten; soon enough, her name slurred into “Maudelen”…giving rise to the English entries for her feast: Maudlintide, Maudeleyn day, and other similar variations. And this is where we get the modern word “maudlin” - an adoption of the Magdalene’s Middle English name, blended with the art from that period that emphasized her extreme penitence and her sorrow at the death of Jesus.

Among the legends from that time, one tells us that St. Mary Magdalene - accompanied by Ss. Martha, Lazarus, and other Christians - was sent aboard a rudderless boat to certain death at sea. Miraculously, though, they washed ashore at Provence.

There, she preached, wrought miracles, and eventually retired to a secluded cave - living a life of solitude, fed only by angels.

There, this woman to whom we’ve assigned a ‘wild’ past lived, indeed, in the wild. We see images of her hair growing long to modestly cover her nakedness, some even portraying her whole body as covered in fur. In some accounts, wolves attend the Magdalene, helping to protect her from curious onlookers. (She even becomes conflated with Maid Marian, deep in Sherwood Forest).

And so, we find her in those holy thresholds of the wild - sacred springs, wells dedicated to our nautical Magdalene. These spaces received local pilgrims on her feast…a day of liturgy and revelry behind them, people went to her holy wells to look for healing, comfort, inspiration. For a refreshing taste of wholeness from a woman whom Jesus had made whole.

Midsummer’s End

We also find that Midsummer - not just a day, but a season within summer - was closed by the Magdalene. Her feast bookended Midsummer traditions, with vibrant agricultural festivals finding a ritual home in Maudeleyn day.

This was the final day to make Midsummer cushions…those whimsical, poetic tributes to the height of summer:

“This was a custom, used some seventy years ago at many places in the North of England; but it, like almost every other of the innocent and pleasing customs and amusements of our fore-elders, is fast vanishing away, if it has not altogether done so. The young lads and lasses of the town or village having procured a cushion or, in accordance with local phraseology, a whishion, and covered it with calico, or silk of showy and attractive colour, proceeded to bedeck it with every variety of flower which they could procure out of their parents’ and more wealthy neighbors’ gardens, displaying them in such a manner so as to give it a most beautiful appearance. All this done, they placed themselves, with their cushion of Flora’s choicest gems, in the most public place they conveniently could, soliciting of every passer-by a trifling present of pence, which, in numerous cases, was liberally and cheerfully bestowed. A set form of words was made use of (in rhyme, I believe) when soliciting those gifts, the precise version of which I have never been able to obtain.

“This custom prevailed from Midsummer Day to Magdalene Day, which latter has long been corrupted to ‘Maudlin Day.’”

Michael Aislabie Denham, The Denham Tracts: A Collection of Folklore : Reprinted from the Original Tracts and Pamphlets Printed by Mr. Denham Between 1846 and 1859: Volume 2

This was a time for charter fairs - sometimes called “Maudlin Markets” - and processions, guild plays and gatherings, and seasonal celebrating incorporating all ages of the parish.

In a way, just as St. Mary Magdalene inhabits the threshold of the resurrection, her feast is a threshold for Midsummer and the turning toward the late-Summer Harvest season, when the pace of farm work and celebration alike shift.

Whole communities put their hope in this time…these last Summer weeks would determine their ability to last through the harsh winter months with food stores. And the Magdalene, too, is a bit like a lens for our spiritual hope in Christ: for centuries, we’ve grafted our pains, fears, and failures into her, trusting in that alchemy that turns desolation into devotion when we relent and offer our lives up to God.

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A timeline of Maudlintide’s history, Scripture verses, details about the flora and fauna tied to this feast, tidbits about traditional meals and celebrations, & more can be found in this month’s printable:

Scriptorium

BENEDICTION

Give me, O Lord, in this exile, the bread of tears and sorrow for which I hunger more than for any choice delights.

Hear me, for your love, and for the dear merits of your beloved Mary, and your blessed Mother, the greater Mary.

Redeemer, my good Jesus, do not despise the prayers of one who has sinned against you but strengthen the efforts of a weakling that loves you.

Shake my heart out of its indolence, Lord, and in the ardour of your love bring me to the everlasting sight of your glory where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, God, for ever.

Amen.

St. Anselm, excerpt from his Prayer to St. Mary Magdalene (11th c.)

What has your perception of St. Mary Magdalene been? Have you celebrated her feast before?

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We’ll be gathering this weekend to have a belated Maudeleyn Day at the river (and maybe some Midsummer Cushions, too!) More soon…

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

But if you wish to know how these things come about,
ask grace not instruction,
desire not understanding,
the groaning of prayer not diligent reading,
the Spouse not the teacher,
God not man,
darkness not clarity,
not light but the fire
that totally inflames and carries us into God
by ecstatic unctions and burning affections.
This fire is God,
and his furnace is in Jerusalem;1
and Christ enkindles it
in the heat of his burning passion,
which only he truly perceives who says:
My soul chooses hanging and my bones death.2

St. Bonaventure, excerpt from Itinerarium mentis in Deum (The Soul’s Journey Into God), 13th c.

Over a lifetime of searching for God, a sobering truth has slowly taken shape every time I find him (or when he finds me): that fleeting moment of clarity or conversion is when the search really begins in earnest, again and again, forever.

Because God is not an object to be grasped, turned over, and understood. He is an eternal arrival.

Let us give our mind’s best attention, and, with the Lord’s help, seek after God. The language of the divine hymn is: Seek God and your soul shall live. Let us search for that which needs to be discovered, and into that which has been discovered. He whom we need to discover is concealed, in order to be sought after; and when found, is infinite, in order still to be the object of our search.

St. Augustine, excerpt from Tractate 63 (on John 13:31-32), trans. John Gibb (1888)

When I was a teenager and my mom received a hard diagnosis, I sought God angrily, only in terms of crisp certainties that I could either rationalize or disprove. The search for God became a battleground…so unsurprising, I see now, that I couldn’t hear his clarion call in all my tumult (except for those occasional breakthroughs, despite my best efforts).

I’m thankful for every part of my journey, though - even those years of angry atheism - because they were tender parts of the formation that ultimately led me home, into God.

At different points in my relentless seeking (as my beloved spiritual director told me once, I’m like a dog with a bone), God caught me. My first conversion moments, those times when I finally unclenched my hands and relented, often had heralds - I remember St. Bonaventure completely knocking me sideways.

I’ll share more about my conversion to Christianity later, because I like to tell stories backwards - but for now, on St. Bonaventure’s feast day, I wanted share more about a conversion that surprised me more than anyone else.

This past Lent3, I entered into full communion with the Catholic Church.

I’ve always had a fiercely-held skepticism of hierarchy & institutions. I have an innately rebellious streak and tendencies toward individualism. And when I came to Christianity, I also came with a laundry list of caveats and demands for what I wanted it to look like and feel like.

The tricky thing with those tendencies was that my conversion to Christianity also dumped me right into the depths of Catholic tradition (again, that’s another story for another time). So, I rolled up my sleeves and went to work in the way I knew how…fighting my way through, reading Catholic apologetics until I earned a pair of bifocals, and also asking every Catholic I knew to defend doctrine (bless you for your patience - you know who you are). I desperately read the Catechism from front to back when our oldest was a baby, and now he’s in high school.

In other words: within these years of finding my home inside Christianity, years of both beautiful and challenging formation in a variety of church communities, I kept feeling tugged into Catholicism…but I wanted to turn over every stone, investigate every single piece of doctrine, before committing.

I had a few white whales in that journey that I kept coming back to over and over to either ‘prove’ or ‘disprove’ to my own satisfaction - doctrine and tradition that made me bristle…like the male priesthood. The Real Presence. Apostolic succession & all of its implications and hierarchies. Closed communion. The influence of Roman civic structure in church tradition and clerical hierarchy made me question what elements of Church tradition were products of men or of God (whether both, either, or neither).

Years ago, I decided to take a leap and attend RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults - an inquiry and formation process for adult converts). Our teacher was phenomenal, but I still approached it like an interview and jumped ship a few months in.

In retrospect, I wanted to be convinced - not converted.

A few years went by - years when I reckoned with relentless PTSD from losing my mom and sister, while continuing to wrestle with my home in the Church. I was fortunate to have forged some incredible bonds with lifelong friends from the churches we went in and out of over these years, connections that transcended any sort of church geography or denomination.

As I continued to heal, though, I still felt restless in faith communities…and just came to sort of accept that restlessness.

But then, God moved and all of my calculations fell by the wayside.

In the spring of 2025, I staved off my ongoing anxiety and attended an art retreat in Tucson, Arizona - the closing event of a year-long mentorship process that had been a bit world-shifting for me.

On the last day of the retreat, with an extra few hours at the airport before my flight left, I snagged an Uber and went to a close-by historic church on a whim: the San Xavier del Bac Mission. It was like stepping into another world, and though that Mission will get its own separate post, suffice it to say: as I wandered the Mission’s cruciform interior, overwhelmed by the folk-baroque artwork, the statues, everything, I rounded the corner and had St. Bonaventure sneak up on me, again.

Something about coming face to face with that statue broke a space wide open in me, and I found myself in tears. I watched as desperate people shuffled into the space, clinging to their hats, pinning milagros - and all their hopes and prayers - along with hospital bracelets onto the trailing fabric of the dress of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the mantle of San Xavier. Someone on her knees, face-down weeping, and holding the feet of the crucified Christ.

It was a place bursting with unutterable beauty and holding the most tender pains and fears right inside it - including my own.

So, I started to pick up those apologetics again, revisiting old habits…hoping that St. Augustine, from across the ages, could convince me of the Real Presence through his homilies. Convince me that this was the spiritual home I was looking for.

A few months later, in July, I went on a road-trip to visit my dad (and my friend ) in my hometown in Montana. I caravanned with Heather, a childhood friend - winding through backroads and stopping at hole-in-the-wall places as we went.

Heather led the caravan, and knowing my love for old churches, she would pull over to visit every little small-town church we found.

At golden hour, just outside Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Heather pulled off the freeway and led me into a state park - encompassing the historic “Cataldo” Mission, also known as the Mission of the Sacred Heart.

Arriving after closing time, the church (no longer active, but preserved alongside its rectory) was locked. Wandering up the steps to that church, glowing golden while the sun was hanging lower in the sky, the world felt thick with beauty. I don’t know quite how to describe it…but standing on that porch, I had to shut my eyes and just let it wash over me - the smell of heaven, truly.

I opened my eyes and looked around to see that we were surrounded by a grove of linden trees, all in bloom, all covered in honeybees, with flowers just seeping with that aroma. It actually did smell like heaven.

The linden was my mother’s tree - she had planted one as a sapling long before I was born, and I grew up with that tree. She carefully pruned it and delighted in it year after year, and in many ways, it felt like family to me.

Mom may as well have been standing there with me.

And, as it happens, our Mother has a penchant for the linden tree, too: as Our Lady of the Linden, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the branches of a linden. With just a little digging, I found countless hymns celebrating the linden as a touchstone for the holy, with churches, statuary, paintings, and more celebrating the Marian apparition.

The next day, we took a detour to northwest Montana, visiting the St. Ignatius Mission - its gorgeous interior filled with murals by a Jesuit cook in the early 20th century. I’d been pining to see this church for years.

After spending some time in the nave, marveling over all of the artwork and the intersections with the local tribe (the Tabernacle was inside a small teepee), we wandered the grounds and visited one of the original cabins that predated the more ornate church. It was a makeshift museum/gift shop, and I found a rosary to take home with me.

The volunteer helping me asked me if I had come for the pilgrimage - and, a bit dumbfounded, I found that I was, indeed, on an accidental-pilgrimage. St. Ignatius was part of the Year of Jubilee pilgrimage, which I hadn’t even realized until then (our farm, coincidentally, is called Jubilee Farm - after the year of Jubilee).

We set out for more roadside stops, taking windy backroads all the way. I was listening to an episode of Fr. Mike Schmitz’s podcast, laughing at myself as he talked about the art of' ‘being here now,’ living with God in the present rather than constantly disembodying ourselves into the past, future, or tech distractions.

It felt so fitting to hear (however ironic the medium was) - there I was, solo in our car on a beautiful summer roadtrip with a friend just up ahead…yet I was filling every moment of silence with something streaming from my phone. One podcast episode after another, more music, more distractions, however edifying they were. I’d gone into the trip with the intention of really savoring some rare moments of silence, but even without my sweet kids chittering or the dog talking or all the usual chores back home, I found myself running from silence and solitude.

We stopped to fuel up, and then - my phone crashed. It just went completely blank, and no amount of charging would power it up again.

There on the Montana backroads, radio stations were too spotty to pick up…all I got was static.

So I found myself driving these beautifully familiar landscapes, with only silence - and a rosary. It almost felt as if Our Lady had lovingly taken a distraction away from me (such a mom thing to do, right?), asking me to just listen.

I lost all of the photos I’d taken at all of the Missions I’d been to over the past year, and somehow…it didn’t matter.

I spent the rest of the drive praying the rosary, circling over it again and again. When I arrived, I opened up my laptop and sent an email to my previous RCIA director and told her I wanted to come into the Church.

Dad & I went out to find a flip phone for me, I enrolled in OCIA (an updated translation for this process - the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults), and then a whole new process of conversion began in earnest.

Because I wasn’t convinced: I was converted.

I know these anecdotes can sound trite or saccharine at face value, but ultimately, they brought me to a whole shift of self. Not the apologetics - not the defenses of Apostolic succession, not Canon law, however valuable and crucial they may be.

In Catholicism, I found a language so resonant with my most interior experience - a living faith that held the full complexity of suffering and joy. I took a leap without all the answers - probably with even more questions than before. And I’m so grateful I did.

Since that pilgrimage summer, I’ve revisited a few of those Missions…and getting to greet St. Bonaventure again (my confirmation saint), then celebrate the Mass as a Franciscan friar presided, was a surreally full-circle moment.

Would you like to hear a bit about my experience with OCIA? Do you have questions? I’ll be doing a follow-up post with a bit more about the whole process.

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I remain thankful for, and formed by, each stream of Christian tradition that I was steeped in over the years. The women’s small group at an evangelical church was my lifeline during some incredibly dark PTSD years, a local mainline Protestant church welcomed us as family (and still do), my grandmother’s Lutheran prayer book still lives on my bedside table…and I could go on.

I stand where I am thanks to all of these expressions of the faith, not in spite of them.

Sancte Bonaventura, ora pro nobis.

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

A link to the recording of our conversation will be posted below later!

Summer offers so many (holy) interruptions to our usual routines, and navigating that shift can feel equal parts invigorating and exhausting, depending on the day! (In our household, anyway…)

Having the brilliant by my side during these always-changing summer days has been so refreshing…and I hope you’ve been finding lots of inspiration and balm in her new book, too.

Leave a comment

This week, we’ll be closing our time in A More Beautiful Way to Live, and Bethaney herself will be joining us to chat!

Here are all the login details…

GOOGLE MEET DETAILS
» Thursday, July 9 at 3 pm Pacific Time

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“A thing which is covered cannot respond to the sun’s rays, not because of any defect in the sun, which is shining all the time, but because the cover is an obstacle; if the cover be burnt away, this thing is open to the sun; more and more as the cover is consumed does it respond to the rays of the sun.”

St. Catherine of Genoa (1447 - 1510)

Spoilers ahead! If you’re a Founding Member who hasn’t received the summer box yet (email me with questions!) or is waiting to open it, you may want to come back to this post later.

In this summer’s box, I’m thinking about the bright summer sun as a foundry: in the Church, a reminder of our greatest Light, the furnace of our transformation, the illumination that pervades all darkness.

Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

Revelation 22:5 (NABRE)

We still see memories of that symbolic connection in Midsummer bonfires at St. John’s Tide (and so many other summer feasts). It’s in the bounty of this season, too: all of the flowers, herbs, produce...transformed by the light and warmth of the sun into beauty and nourishment, celebrated in the historic Church.

So, this summer’s box is filled with sunny delights that I hope will serve as a reminder of the brightest, warmest sanctuary of our own transformation.

UNPACKING THE BOX…

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BOTANICAL CYANOTYPE KIT
by AtWater Designs (Sarah Bourne Rafferty) | Pennsylvania

This kit & booklet, created by cyanotype artist Sarah Rafferty, will help you to preserve summer blooms and summer sunlight alike. Using a solar printing process, you can make ethereal prints of natural elements using Sarah’s kit - and some good ol’ sunshine. (Sure to add a bit of warmth to winter days on the other side of the calendar...)

GOLDEN CREAMSICLE ELECTUARY
by The Local Wild ( ) | Pennsylvania

Friend/beekeeper Taylor Parra practices the ancient craft of electuary-making, blending powdered herbs with raw honey. Her summertime offering - Golden Creamsicle - combines raw honey, orange peel, vanilla, marshmallow root, turmeric, and tulsi for a nostalgic, bright flavor. Like sunshine in a jar.

RESTORE CANDLE
by Spír Candle Co / Washington

Again evoking the fiery sunlight of this season, the ‘Restore’ candle - inspired by a riverside campfire, with notes of smoke, leather, and vanilla amber - is a locally-crafted treasure made by a candle company that employs & mentors formerly-incarcerated men. Candlemaking is now part of their journey forward in recovery, and each candle has been signed by the young man who poured it.

SUMMER PRINT
by Hearthstone Fables (yours truly!) / Washington

I printed a whole array of prints, postcards, and cards with some of my favorite summer designs...each box has a surprise print in it!

THYME
by Jubilee Farm / Washington

Fresh-picked from the herb beds by my studio here on the farm! Flowering thyme feels quintessentially “summer” to me, especially fragrant on sun-warmed days.

Each box includes an antique hymnal page and The Foundry - a wee newsletter with a short article, a welcome letter, and more about the items in the box.

AND: I also put an ORIGINAL ink drawing into ONE box…a tradition I’m planning to continue!

Founders, what delights are you making with the electuary? Have you tried your hand at any cyanotype printing yet? I would love to see how you fold all of these into your own creative life…feel free to send me a note or share over in the Chat for our community to enjoy.

I hope each one of these artisan-made items helps you to soak up the greatest Beauty of this sunny season.

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

Sunshine and shadow play amid the trees
In bosky groves, while from the vivid sky
The sun’s gold arrows fleck the fields at noon,
Where weary cattle to their slumber hie.
How sweet the music of the purling rill,
Trickling adown the grassy hill!
While dreamy fancies come to give repose
When the first star of evening glows.

Henrietta Cordelia Ray, “July” (1849-1916)

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Would you like some music while you read?

Founder Box announcements

• JULY | Founding Members who joined prior to May 1 should have received their summer box by now (or should be finding it in their mailboxes soon!) All new members will begin their subscription with the upcoming fall box.
  

Online gatherings

• JULY 9 | Thursday at 3 pm Pacific Time | Summer book club with author
  » For paid subscribers: We’ll be closing our time in Bethaney’s poignant new book, A More Beautiful Way to Live, by chatting with the author herself!

Fresh Posts & Previous Archives

• JULY 25 | Saturday | St. James’ Day
  » Printables: Whimsical paper scene, blessing, and recipe

• ALL MONTH | Rushbearing
  » Printables: Rushbearing gift tag and a blessing
  

• ALL MONTH | Rushbearing Festival
  » Revisit the videos and interviews from last summer’s beautiful Rushbearing Festival - featuring discussions with the Paternoster Guild, the St. Kateri Conservation Center, All the Household, Mustard Seeds & Wildflowers, and Tanglewood Atelier.

+ July 2026 Calendar & Coloring

The July Almanac includes:

• July calendar page with a brief selection of holy days, dip-pen illustrations, and links to connect you with more HF resources

• Coloring page featuring my hand-drawn illustrations of July feast emblems

• Print out these goodies (I recommend card-stock for the calendar and regular paper for the coloring page), and see how you can integrate the featured holidays into your existing plans!

Give a gift subscription

+ Coloring through July

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Revisit this July coloring page…a sweet scene filled with symbols of July’s feasts. As you mark each feast, color its emblem on the page - and by the time the month has come to a close, you’ll have a vibrant, complete picture of its celebrations!

Head to the Scriptorium to find your July printables:

Scriptorium

For July, we’ll be focusing on our beloved St. Mary Magdalene - and her feast, in Anglo-Saxon days, known as Maudeleyn Day or Maudlintide (a whole story in & of itself!)

• Reflections, history, folk traditions, art, and more will be available in mid-July

• Paid members will receive a printable cover page and booklet for their liturgical year binders, as well as a peek into how our liturgical living group celebrates this holiday

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Heart of Jesus, burning with love of us,
Inflame our hearts with love of you.

From an Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

A few weekends ago, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart with our community…

Here’s a glimpse into our fiery gathering!

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After our chat, a link to its recording will be posted below!

’s new book has been helping me think about familiar points of friction in fresh, new ways…perfect for re-shaping habits during these summer days, when our typical schedule has gone out the window!

I hope you’ve been finding yourself refreshed by her book, too…let’s get together today for our opening book club gathering to talk about it!

• And remember to save the date for July 9, when the author will be joining us!

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» Here are all the details for the first of two live chats for our Summer Book Club…

Google Meet Details
» Monday, June 22 at 2 pm Pacific Time

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While ages course along,
Blessed be with loudest song
The Sacred Heart of Jesus,
By every heart and tongue.

Excerpt from “To Jesus’ heart all burning”

As you wander…

• find this month’s schedule of events in the Village Green

• peruse the June 2026 Almanac

• explore more posts for the month of June

• send me a note!

SACRED HEART PRINTABLES

A Book of Hours helps us to graft liturgical traditions into our own sacred days - and each month, I offer some additions intended to spark curiosity as we re-discover these seasonal patterns together.

This month, you’ll find:

• a cover page (with original art featuring the Pelican and Bleeding Heart - more details about their symbolism are in the printable!)

• a summary (with artwork) of history, traditions, flora, & fauna that give shape to the holiday

• a field guide coloring page

• prayer and artwork

Paid members can find Sacred Heart art & resources (as well as my whole archive of printables) in the Scriptorium:

Scriptorium

As if it were a spiritual garden

From thy life-giving side,
A fount like that which flowed from Eden
Waters thy Church, O Christ,
As if it were a spiritual garden.
Thence it divides,
As from one stem
Into four Gospels.
It waters the universe,
It rejoices creation,
Teaching the nations
Faithfully to revere
Thy gracious rule.

From a Holy Friday Matins hymn in the Orthodox Church

Our journey into Ordinary Time II - when the Church enters into this great season of pilgrimage - begins with presence, theology, and devotion. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost brought us to the fullness of the Trinity, Corpus Christi held our celebration of the ongoing presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and now, at the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we dwell the sanctuary of Christ’s love. What a beautiful school to launch us into our ‘ordinary’ sojourn - and what a kind reminder of the sanctity and depth inherent in the ordinary. In our familiar, counted days - our holy mundane - we find the deepest mysteries of God.

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a more recent calendar addition with an ancient heritage. Its lineage traces back to the Beloved Disciple’s posture of reclining toward the heart of Jesus (John 13:23), from which the early Church fathers and mothers drew their devotion to the Sacred Heart...a symbol that encompasses the fullness of God’s love for his creation. A fiercely flaming love pierced by thorns and spear, always bleeding in yearning for our own yearning.

The early Middle Ages saw an intensifying of this devotion, with Saints receiving visions of the Sacred Heart - St. Gertrude the Great, in the 13th c., leaned her head against the side wound of Jesus, and, like the Apostle St. John, heard his heartbeat.

French Visitation Nun St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, though, brought the depth of this devotion to the breadth of the Church in the late 17th c.: in her miraculous visions, Jesus himself sent her forth to share the beauty of his Sacred Heart, providing devotional practices for conforming oneself to his precious Heart.

It took time for this devotion to move from religious communities and into the wider Church, but eventually - just relatively recently, in 1856 - a feast day was set aside to fold the whole Church into devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Being such a recent feast, many of its customs are still being newly discovered - most of them landing sweetly in the context of the beginning of the summer harvest, tethered to the firstfruits of Corpus Christi...an enthronement of the Sacred Heart in our lives, our homes, and even our landscapes. Heart-shaped bonfires are lit from hill to hill in some places, and a lamp is kept burning at home, illuminating the image of the Sacred Heart. Flames and firstfruits...like echoes of that most Sacred Heart - the ultimate sustaining love, the firstfruit of humanity.

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A timeline of the feast of the Sacred Heart’s history, Scripture verses, details about the flora and fauna tied to this feast, tidbits about traditional meals and celebrations, & more can be found in this month’s printable:

Scriptorium

BENEDICTION

O wounded Heart! O Font of tears!
O Throne of grief and pain,
Whereon, for the eternal years,
Thy love for man doth reign!

Heart of Jesus, hear!
O Heart of Love Divine!
Listen to our prayer:
Make us always Thine.

Fr. Theodore Metcalf, excerpt from “O Sacred Heart, O Love Divine” (19th c.)

I hope that this little offering, as well as the art and printables tucked into it, will be a jumping-off point for a whole month of focus on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All of June, after all, is dedicated to the Sacred Heart…with that Midsummer sun burning brightly, we have such a startling reminder of the sanctuary that is available to us every day of our years.

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How are you celebrating the Sacred Heart this month, friends?

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

A link to the recording of our chat is posted below!

I’m forever fascinated with Medieval Books of Hours (which may go without saying, if you’ve been here for awhile!) The textures, colors, endlessly creative ways of portraying Scripture and hagiography, intricately detailed borders…that sacramental eye toward all the flora and fauna of nature…they’re just the most gorgeous vessels of Medieval timekeeping.

And I suppose that’s what really strikes me most about the Book of Hours: the way it’s a visual union of time and prayer. It marks the sanctity of time, weaving Scripture and Sacred Tradition through the unique life of the book’s owner.

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So, my friends, I’m over the moon to let you know that Medieval manuscripts specialist Sienna Wells will be joining us on Friday for a show-and-tell of some Medieval Books of Hours - as well as Q&A time!

One of Sienna’s many gifts is her eye toward the unspoken stories embedded in each Medieval manuscript that she studies…she notices every detail of interaction with the Book of Hours.

“In the process of creating the catalogue, it became very important to me to highlight the human element in medieval books, and the journeys they lived through. From scribal mistakes and the interactions between illuminators and scribes…to physical acts of devotion including kissing and the rubbing of miniatures by owners in their prayer books…to the many hands that helped produce manuscripts, the many owners - and the women who were part of that history.”

Sienna Wells

Sienna Wells is a Medieval Manuscript Dealer and Historian. She joined Tom W. Ayling Rare Books & Manuscripts in 2024 and is a specialist in medieval and renaissance manuscripts.

Sienna’s Masters thesis was about the Book Of Hours of Nicolas Rolin (Yates Thompson MS 45), and details about her first catalogue of medieval manuscripts can be found here.

Sienna also posts videos about manuscripts and the world of rare books to Instagram and TikTok.

Courtesy of Tom W. Ayling web site

I hope you can join Sienna and I for a fascinating conversation! Here are all the details…

Google Meet Details & Invitation
» Friday, June 12 at 8 am Pacific Time

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Ave, Colenda Trinitas!
Ave, Perennis Unitas!
Pater Deus, Nate Deus,
Et Deus Alme Spiritus!

All hail, Adorèd Trinity!
All hail, Eternal Unity!
O God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, ever One!

Excerpt from Ave Colenda Trinitas (early Medieval Anglo-Saxon); tr. John David Chambers (1857)

Just as May was at a close, amidst all the intensity with the end of the school year, we still managed to get together for a beautiful evening celebrating Trinity Sunday. It can be so hard to set time aside to prioritize gathering, but it is so fruitful and restorative. Somehow, it’s another addition to the calendar that seems to create more mental space rather than deplete.

Here’s a peek at how we celebrated Trinity together!

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And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there’s never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature’s palace;
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o’errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,—
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?

James Russell Lowell, excerpt from “June” (19th c.)

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Would you like some music while you read?

Founder Box announcements

• MID-JUNE | Founding Members’ summer boxes will begin shipping mid-June!
  

Online gatherings

• JUNE 12 | Friday at 8 am Pacific Time | History of Books of Hours
  » For paid subscribers: We’ll be enjoying a live show-and-tell with Sienna Wells, manuscripts specialist at Tom W. Ayling Rare Books & Manuscripts - Sienna will be sharing more about Medieval Books of Hours in their collection, as well as giving us more historical background on these manuscripts!
  

• JUNE 22 | Monday at 2 pm Pacific Time | Summer Book Club welcome gathering

  » For paid subscribers: Join me as we begin our time in our Summer Book Club selection - A More Beautiful Way to Live!

Fresh Posts & Previous Archives

• JUNE 11 | Thursday | St. Barnabas’ Day
  » Printables: Cover sheet and resource packet

• JUNE 24 | Wednesday | Johnsmas
  

• JUNE 29 | Monday | Ss. Peter & Paul
  » Printables: Cover page and Book of Hours pages

Also this month:

• Hearthstone Bookshelf - first book posted!

+ June 2026 Calendar & Coloring

The June Almanac includes:

• June calendar page with a selection of holy days, dip-pen illustrations, and links to connect you with more HF resources

• Coloring page featuring my hand-drawn illustrations of June feast emblems

• Print out these goodies (I recommend card-stock for the calendar and regular paper for the coloring page), and see how you can integrate the featured holidays into your existing plans!

Give a gift subscription

+ June Recipes

Refer a friend

This collection of recipe cards features whimsical illustrations for meals to help share and celebrate a handful of feasts throughout June!

Head to the Scriptorium to find your June printables:

Scriptorium

BLEEDING HEART
Dicentra formosa

Head to the Scriptorium to find your June Herbarium print:

Scriptorium

This month, we’ll be looking at a relatively recent feast that encapsulates an ancient devotion: the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus:

• Reflections, history, folk traditions, art, and more will be available in the first half of June

• Paid members will receive a printable cover page and booklet for their liturgical year binders, as well as a peek into how our liturgical living group celebrates this holiday

Share

Rain on the Trinity
means a harvest of bread and a warm summer

Ukrainian weather proverb

As you wander…

• find this month’s schedule of events in the Village Green

• send me a note!

TRINITY SUNDAY PRINTABLES

A Book of Hours helps us to graft liturgical traditions into our own sacred days - and each month, I offer some additions intended to spark curiosity as we re-discover these seasonal patterns together.

This month, you’ll find:

• a cover page (with original art featuring the Triple-Hare - a Trinity depiction in some old English churches - and Herb-Trinity, this feast’s flower)

• a summary (with artwork) of history, traditions, flora, & fauna that give shape to the holiday

• a whimsical coloring page (featuring an old English Trinity Sunday tradition…)

Paid members can find Trinity Sunday art & resources (as well as my whole archive of printables) in the Scriptorium:

Scriptorium

Creator, Saviour, Strengthening Guide

The busy world a thousand ways
Is hurrying by, nor ever stays
To catch a note of Thy dear praise.

Why tarries not her chariot wheel,
That o’er her with no vain appeal
One gust of heavenly song might steal?

Alas! for her Thy opening flowers
Unheeded breathe to summer showers,
Unheard the music of Thy bowers.

What echoes from the sacred dome
The selfish spirit may o’ercome
That will not hear of love or home!

The heart that scorn’d a father’s care,
How can it rise in filial prayer?
How an all-seeing Guardian bear?

Or how shall envious brethren own
A Brother on th’ eternal throne,
Their Father’s joy, their hope alone?

How shall Thy Spirit’s gracious wile
The sullen brow of gloom beguile,
That’ frowns on sweet Affection’s smile?

Eternal One, Almighty Trine!
(Since Thou art ours, and we are Thine,)
By all Thy love did once resign,

By all the grace Thy heavens still hide,
We pray Thee, keep us at Thy side,
Creator, Saviour, strengthening Guide!

John Keble, excerpt from “Trinity Sunday”

Eastertide led us through fifty days of joyfully soaking in the fulfillment of salvation, and Pentecost’s fiery tongues - revealing the mystery of our Triune God - ushered in the Church’s mission.

In that week after Pentecost (historically, the great feast’s octave), we move toward Trinity Sunday...a summertime fruiting of everything we’ve just experienced blooming during those springtime cycles. We affirm the truth so mystically encapsulated in the Trinity, celebrating a theological concept rather than a particular event or witness.

And, from here, we’re propelled forth into our time of great pilgrimage...the beautifully difficult work of daily discipleship practiced throughout a fresh season of Ordinary Time.

Trinity Sunday - this threshold between our salvation and our missionary pilgrimage - has an ancient lineage within the Church. Though every Sunday hailed & affirmed the mystery of the Trinity, a celebratory emphasis of the Trinity grew and deepened in response to confusion and false teaching. It became incredibly popular in the Middle Ages, remaining a cornerstone in our annual cycle of rehearsing the truth of our faith.

Tethered to Pentecost (and, therefore, Easter), Trinity Sunday aligns our faith journey with the abundance of summertime and the coming harvest: as God’s nature is loving communion, we’re called to bloom and bear fruit in image of his character...directing our love toward God and neighbor, allowing ourselves to embody - however imperfectly - the legacy to which we’re called.

In popular celebration - that beautiful intersection between Church theology and the devotion of lay people - we find customs that so beautifully encapsulate all of this theology.

Church fairs, wakes, and ales were held, drawing the people of the parish together for a shared meal with early summer herbs and flowers. Trinitarian blossoms - like the three-colored Herb Trinity (the wild pansy) - adorned garlands and wreaths, placed over the heads of young ladies & men as Trinitarian prayers were offered.

Both churches and homes would be greened for this holiday, like a summertime Christmas: birch trees were taken from the woods and brought indoors, ferns and moss adorning the aisle, hay strewn on the pews…turning the church, for our threshold holiday of Trinity Sunday, into something of a threshold between architecture and nature.

Many Eastern European regions considered this one of their “Green” Holidays, in which the church came alive with the abundance of early summer greenery…flourishing and growing, just as we’re called to do during Ordinary Time.

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A timeline of Trinity Sunday’s history, Scripture verses, details about the flora and fauna tied to this feast, tidbits about traditional meals and celebrations, & more can be found in this month’s printable:

Scriptorium

BENEDICTION

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before thee,
Who was and is and evermore shall be.

Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.

Reginald Heber (1823)

Last night, our liturgical living group celebrated Trinity Sunday with some wreath-making - I’ll be sharing more details on that soon!

In the meantime, remember: though Trinity Sunday is marked on a day, its celebration was never limited to that day alone: traditions and gatherings pointed toward this great solemnity in the days leading up to Sunday, and a plethora of customs continue celebrating it all week long afterward.

…so, keep the party going as we head into Ordinary Time!

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Pax et bonum,
Kristin

At long last, here’s a recording for those who missed the live!

P.S. I’m still brand new to figuring all this technology out and am almost always behind-the-times 😂 - enjoy my struggles thro…

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“We don’t heal just to mitigate the pain in our lives; we also heal so that we have the capacity to embrace the elation.”

Bethaney Wilkinson, A More Beautiful Way to Live

Has the pace felt a bit slower here?

…I hope so. This spring, as I’ve been pondering what ‘sustainability’ looks like for both writers and readers, having Bethaney Wilkinson (via her remarkable new book) alongside me has been such a source of inspiration and camaraderie.

Over the past few years, I’ve savored Bethaney’s pieces here on Substack,1 following along as she’s done the tender work of sharing both her faith journey (she converted to the Orthodox Church a year ago) and her heart for writing & teaching.

In her newest book, A More Beautiful Way to Live, I was delighted to get to hold the gift of Bethaney’s writing in my hands…taking it slowly and pausing to dig deeply into her incisive prompts and poignant reflections.

True to the nature of all of her work, A More Beautiful Way feels a bit like a map…a space to wander and explore. At its heart is the invitation to re-focus our divided attention - both a symptom and a cause of so much of our turmoil - toward more wholeness and attentiveness. Through bravely-vulnerable reflections and practical tips, Bethaney helps us explore the ways our modern pace of life may be hindering our vocation and harming our peace…and she offers us loving relatability and helpful ways to move forward.

All of this is told through the lens of the seasons - which, at a time when we tend to expect machine-like pace and precision from our very humane selves, is such a relief.

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A More Beautiful Way to Live has already proven to be formational in refreshing my own habits, and I feel like summer will provide the perfect backdrop as we steep in this restorative book as a community!

And lovely Bethaney will be joining us this summer, too. :)

is a writer, facilitator, spiritual director, and Orthodox Christian rooted in rural middle Georgia, where she lives with her husband Alex and their two dogs, Isla and Bear. She has an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and a BA in educational studies from Emory University. She is the author of A More Beautiful Way to Live: Nine Practices to Unlearn Habits of Anxiety, Fear, and Urgency and is the pen behind the Substack publication, The Inner Terrain.

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GATHERINGS

Everyone is invited to read along with Book Club! All subscribers can share their questions and thoughts in the HF Chat and in the comments thread here.

Additionally, paid members can join for live online gatherings - including a discussion with the author herself!

Subscribe now

Summer Book Club Gatherings:

LIVE DISCUSSIONS

For paid members.
Details and a Google Meet link will be sent the week of each discussion, and a reminder (with link) will be posted in Chat. If you can’t make it to these gatherings live, no worries; they’ll be recorded and posted for you to watch on the re-play.

• WELCOME GATHERING
  Monday, June 22 at 2 pm Pacific Time
  Just an informal welcome gathering & time for chatting!
  

• CHAT WITH THE AUTHOR
  Thursday, July 9 at 3 pm Pacific Time
  Author will be joining us as we dive into her book!
  

SUBSTACK CHAT

For all subscribers.
As you read, feel free to hop into our Chat space to discuss with other subscribers!

• Substack Chat

Bethaney shares some helpful links for purchasing her book here:

• A More Beautiful Way to Live

My Abbaye de Cluny rose is blooming right now, and she felt like the perfect emblem of beauty to accompany Bethaney’s book: not just because, in full bloom, this rose is so stunning…but also because her fleeting bloom time, her falling petals, feel like an equally beautiful part of this rose’s story.

Kind of like life: all the beauty, all the pain, in beautiful complexity. And as we hone our attentiveness, those fallen petals and tired blooms can be just as lovely as a new bud.

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Pax et bonum,
Kristin

Behind every single post in this space, there’s a deep-dive of intensive research and reflection. Over the years, I’ve built up a beautiful library of treasured books that support the journey down this rabbit-hole.

Starting this month, I’m expanding my reflections here on Substack by bringing you along for more of the research process: I’ll be steadily sharing posts with more details and reviews about many of my books, and I thought it would be fun to start with a live tour and let you choose the first book to feature this month!

Give a gift subscription

This live peek into my studio and bookshelves will be available to Paid Members (thank you for contributing to this library of research through your generosity!), and folks in attendance at the Live chat will get to help pick the first few books that I’ll write more about this summer… If you can’t make it to the Live, though, keep an eye out for a recording to come later. :)

» Here are all the details for our live chat…

Substack Live Details & Invitation
» Monday, May 11 at 10 am Pacific Time

Time Zone Converter

On the Substack App:

• Check your settings to make sure that you’re set to receive notifications when someone who you subscribe to begins a Live video.

• When I start the Live, you’ll receive a push notification about the event. You can always access the invitation in the Activity section in the app or from the email notification.

• You can also visit my Profile and click on my profile picture to view the Live once it begins.

Get more from Kristin Haakenson in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

On Desktop:

• Follow the link that will be emailed to you when the Live video begins

• …or, visit my Substack page to see the live video at the top of my publication

Questions?

I’m so excited to chat books with you! See you on Monday - but let me know if you have any questions in the meantime!

Leave a comment

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

Excerpt from the Litany of Humility (attributed to Cardinal Merry del Val, Secretary of State to Pope St. Pius X, 1903-1914)

One of the hidden gems in the practice of hosting these liturgical life parties every-single-month is that a lot of idols have been knocked off pedestals simply out of necessity: I can’t manage be too precious with these gatherings, since they come around so often (a dream come true, really).

So, I don’t worry about exactitude…we celebrate when we can, and that often means that we’re gathering weeks after the actual holiday. Oh well!

In getting together for a belated Hocktide party, I saw it as a way for us to really explore the challenge of celebrating all fifty days of Easter - of recalling it as a season, not a day…a habit, not a moment.

And this ended up being one of our wildest gatherings! Here’s a peek into the day…

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A branch of May we have brought you,
And at your door it stands,
It is but a sprout, but it’s well budded out
By the work of our Lord’s hands.

The hedges and trees they are so green,
As green as any leek,
Our heavenly Father He watered them
With his heavenly dew so sweet.

Excerpt from “The Mayers’ Song,” quoted in The Oxford Book of Carols (Percy Dearmer and Vaughan Williams)

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Would you like some music while you read?

Founder Box announcements

• MAY 2 | Saturday | Last day to sign up as a Founding Member in time to begin your subscription with the Summer Box!
  

Online gatherings

• MAY 11 | Monday at 10 am Pacific Time | Live tour of the Hearthstone Bookshelves

  » For paid subscribers: As we begin a new Library series (in which I share more about the books I lean on for my research and reflection), I’ll be hosting a LIVE tour of my bookshelves and can share more about any books that strike your eye while we’re together!

Fresh Posts & Previous Archives

• MAY 1 | Friday | May Day
  » Printables: May Pole paper scene
  

• MAY 14 | Thursday | The Ascension
  

• MAY 19 | Tuesday | St. Dunstan’s Day
  » Printables: Cover page & Book of Hours pages
  

• SECOND HALF OF MAY: Festal focus reflections, art, & resources shared
  

• MAY 18, 19, 20 | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday | Rogation Days
  » Printables: Printable prayer by
  

• MAY 24 | Sunday | Pentecost
  » Printables: Dove garland
  

Also this month:

• Summer book club selection announced

• Start of Hearthstone Bookshelf series

+ May 2026 Calendar & Coloring

The May Almanac includes:

• May calendar page with a selection of holy days, dip-pen illustrations, and links to connect you with more HF resources

• Coloring page featuring my hand-drawn illustrations of May feast emblems

• Print out these goodies (I recommend card-stock for the calendar and regular paper for the coloring page), and see how you can integrate the featured holidays into your existing plans!

Give a gift subscription

+ Marian May Basket

This floral printable takes the beloved tradition of creating a May basket and encourages us to mark our days with symbolic flowers throughout the whole month!

Head to the Scriptorium to find your May printables:

Scriptorium

HAWTHORN (aka, May Flower)
Crataegus spp.

Refer a friend

Symbolism:

• The Hawthorn was said to have been used as the Crown of Thorns during Christ’s Passion - Norman peasants wore sprigs in their hats as a reminder of the Crown.

• The Glastonbury Thorn - a legendary Hawthorn said to have grown from the staff of St. Joseph of Arimathea - uniquely bloomed twice a year…once in the spring, near the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection, and once in the winter, near his Nativity.

• The burning bush is sometimes thought to have been a Hawthorn - a legend that tethers the Haw to the Holy Spirit in symbolic language.

• Blessed Virgin Mary’s Purity (its white flowers, often in bloom during Mary’s month of May, recollect her purity)

• Purification/Protection (because of its tie to the Crown of Thorns & the Passion of Christ)

• Hope (again associated with the Crown of Thorns and, thus, the Resurrection)

Head to the Scriptorium to find your May Herbarium print:

Scriptorium

This month, we’ll be steeping in a holiday that helps us bridge Eastertide and Ordinary Time: Trinity Sunday!

• Reflections, history, folk traditions, art, and more will be available in the second half of May

• Paid members will receive a printable cover page and booklet for their liturgical year binders, as well as a peek into how our liturgical living group celebrates this holiday

Share

Let us rejoice, O my Beloved!
Let us go forth to see ourselves in Your beauty,
To the mountain and the hill,
Where the pure water flows:
Let us enter into the heart of the thicket.

St. John of the Cross, excerpt from A spiritual canticle of the soul and the bridegroom Christ (16th c.)

When crafting this season’s box, each and every item felt so much like an embodiment of “spring” that it wouldn’t surprise me to stumble upon all of these pieces unfurling along with all the ferns up in the woods here.

(So, naturally, I had to make that vision come to life for you all…)

In getting the Founders Box to you this Spring, I was weirdly met with some of the same challenges that accompanied Winter box shipments: high, long-lived floods!! I try to ship each box near the solstices & equinoxes, and flooding has been a wrench in that process the past few times.

So, to get your Spring Founders Box shipped out on time, we moved as much as we could up to the hillside before the water got too high - then we kept moving items via rowboat. (During a flood, we keep our vehicles parked on the hillside and can get out to town & the post office from there.)

Here’s David ferrying me back and forth…

Our friend/‘farmily’/CSA1 manager, Liz, lives on the hill here on the farm - and she’s the real MVP of the Spring Boxes. When we saw the flood predictions, she offered up her home and her help in packaging everything so that it could still get to you as promised. We set up an assembly line in her house…troubleshooting the packaging, getting the details just right, and putting it all together.

Here’s a peek into all that (Liz was helping to put hymnal pages into each box). Rest assured…lots of love and laughter went into each and every package!

I said it before, & I’ll say it again…I love what I do, high water and all! And I’m so grateful to be surrounded by people who will come in and support every aspect of this journey.

UNPACKING THE BOX…

In this year’s Spring Box, I shared some heralds of spring’s liminality - reminders of our heart’s springtime journey toward God. Threshold-plants that flourish at the edge of land and flowing water, delicacies made from tender new growth, poetry to accompany us on the way...it’s a selection that, I pray, will help us to nourish our nature as Christ’s pilgrims.

Here’s a peek into each treasure that filled up the Spring box…

THE WILD IRIS
By Louise Glück / Published by Harper Collins

This lush collection of poems is a perennial favorite of mine, and as irises are springing up this season, it feels like a fitting companion to a new season. Writing about the intersection of faith, nature, and humanity, Glück patterns this collection after the Liturgy of the Hours, with dreamlike call-and-response choir elements and the infrastructure of canonical hours guiding the cadence of the poetry.

• The University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal has a lovely article helping to illuminate The Wild Iris

SPRUCE TIP JELLY
By Barnacle Foods / Alaska

“The true taste of spring in Alaska. A hint of citrus from the Sitka Spruce Tips makes for a sweet, fresh flavored jelly. Spread on toast, mix in a cocktail, or pair with your favorite cheese.”

Tender spruce tips are a harbinger of spring in the Pacific Northwest, and Barnacle has managed to capture their flavor and turn it into the most delightful jelly.

HERBAL MEDLEY FINISHING SALT
By Wildness Within Living / Washington

Our friend Rachael Witt is a registered Herbalist with a special passion for ethnobotany and herbal folklore, and we’ve been fortunate to feature her teas, salves, & more in our barn store for years - she also leads foraging courses on the farm every so often, really helping us all to better notice the landscape here.

For this spring box, I asked Rachael to create something quintessentially seasonal that would help to bring the taste of spring into a wide swath of your meals this season - she came up with this delightful spring salt!

SEED KIT
Alexanders Seed & Watercress Seed

Both Alexanders and Watercress were favorite early-spring herbs for Medieval Lenten pottages - here’s a kit for you to grow your own, including:

• Two biodegradable peat pots (which can be directly planted into larger containers or gardens)

• Two plant labels

• One packet of Alexanders seed & one packet of Watercress seed

• Seeding & transplanting information

ANNUNCIATION STICKER
By Hearthstone Fables / Washington

This Annunciation wheel features the swallow - that migratory bird of the resurreciton, so often featured in historic Annunciation artwork - surrounded by a wreath of florals symbolic of this poignant holiday.

ANTIQUE HYMNAL PAGE & HEARTHSTONE POST NEWSLETTER

Founders, I would love to hear about how you’ve been using the goodies from this season’s box! Do you have a favorite piece?

Leave a comment

I hope it’s a welcome companion in your springtime pilgrimage.

Pax et bonum,
Kristin