“As the liturgical year goes on every day of our lives, every season of every year, tracing the steps of Jesus from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, so does our own life move back and forth between our own beginnings and endings, between our own struggles and triumphs, between the rush of acclamation and the crush of abandonment. It is the link between Jesus and me, between this life and the next, between me and the world around me, that is the gift of the liturgical year.”
Sr. Joan Chittister, The Liturgical Year
Welcome! Whether you’re a longtime friend or a new kindred spirit here (I recommend visiting the Village Green to get your bearings), I’m delighted to be a companion to you through the liturgical year.
For more resources & reflections drawn from this Epiphanytide, visit my archive…
…and, if you’d like to continue thinking about ways to build your Book of Hours, I have a few helpful posts for you.
We’ve dipped back into the wintry layer of my favorite liturgical season - Ordinary Time I, also known as Epiphanytide! This season goes by a few different names, reflecting liturgical shifts over years and traditions…but, whatever label we give to it, this bridge between Christmastide and Lent is truly an Epiphany-soaked way of counting our days.
The beginning of Epiphanytide is a bit amorphous, which I actually love - it just underscores the calendar’s shifting nature and helps us to be less precious about setting the timing of its feasts in stone (a constant reminder that my personality is in need of!)1
Some traditions open this season with the great feast of the Epiphany - others begin it shortly afterward (on the Monday after the Sunday that follows Epiphany - usually, this is the Monday after the Baptism of Our Lord).
So, to help us frame the resources we’ve been collecting over the years, here’s a set of cover pages to add to your liturgical year binder! The art was meticulously painted by hand (the printable includes notes about its symbolism), and there are a few different title options for you. :)
» PRINTABLES
Inspired by Medieval books of hours, these cover pages feature pollinators and plant life emblematic of the liturgical seasons. (They also complement the printables for all of the feast days that you may have already collected!) The design itself is an homage to gothic stained glass windows, their arch reminding us of the journey toward God.
I hope that these pollinators and their plants will remind us of our work as co-creators with Christ!
For Epiphanytide, I’ve included several cover page options to accommodate its changing name in different traditions.
This past summer, we worked together to create our own Books of Hours…liturgical year binders to help us distill the resources we find into a collection that’s actually doable for our own unique situations, something we can add to and rearrange over time.
How’s your binder-building going? Feel free to check in (the subscriber Chat is a great place for that!) and let us know where you’re inspired, stuck, or any other questions or wisdom you’d like to share.
(Currently, the Book of Hours I’ve been making for our family is stuffed full of Advent & Christmas things that I haven’t organized but want to hang onto. But I have some fun ideas for it & will keep you posted on what I figure out!)
I’m intrigued by your binder project. I made a liturgical binder a couple of years ago, but am enjoying your art and approach so much I’d consider redoing it. Do you have an intro post that outlines the parts/goals of your project?
Hi Kristin, what is the book by Sr Joan like? I have read one of hers before and like her style but is this geared specifically to the American Church calendar? It is different to that of Australia in some ways. I was thinking of buying it.
I’m intrigued by your binder project. I made a liturgical binder a couple of years ago, but am enjoying your art and approach so much I’d consider redoing it. Do you have an intro post that outlines the parts/goals of your project?
Hi Kristin, what is the book by Sr Joan like? I have read one of hers before and like her style but is this geared specifically to the American Church calendar? It is different to that of Australia in some ways. I was thinking of buying it.