gather: St. Benedict's Day
A woodland retreat
“…12th calends of April [21 March], the day which we celebrate in honour of the holy man Benedict because of his great virtues. Indeed, the earth also shows by the shoots which are then quickened again that this is the time which should most rightly be the year’s beginning, when the earth was created.”
Ælfric, excerpt from his homily for New Year’s Day, translated by Dr. Eleanor Parker (10th c.)
For the past few years, I’ve hosted a Liturgical Life group. We’re a diverse gathering - of all ages, from a variety of denominations, learning alongside each other and working to graft the traditions of the liturgical calendar into our own varied circumstances.
Today’s look back at our Lenten experience of St. Benedict’s Day is a quick photo album featuring one of my favorite places on the farm: the woods on the western hillside, filled with old-growth cedar and the astounding undergrowth that the Pacific Northwest offers…an ever-changing array of plants, all springing up one after another this time of year.
Our little patch of woodland houses a small shrine - fitted with a Benedict medal, nestled in drooping ostrich ferns. As we encountered St. Benedict this Lent, we celebrated his witness by making a pilgrimage to the shrine, spending some time in the woods as we imagined his three years of forested hermitage.
The kids, of course, found themselves in a fairy tale among all the tiny forest treasures!
Join me for a little jaunt to the woods with our liturgical life group…