September 2025 Almanac

Shifting to autumn feasts, Our Lady of Sorrows, and an herbarium to color

The gentian’s bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes’ sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather,
And autumn’s best of cheer.

Helen Hunt Jackson, excerpt from “September” (19th c.)

In each Almanac, you’ll find a ‘book of days’ to track this month’s HF gatherings & resources…a reveal of our monthly in-depth focus…a whimsical coloring page to inspire us throughout all our September days…and a playlist to serenade.

Consider saving this post to peek back at it throughout the month!

Pax+bonum, Kristin.

Online gatherings

• STAY TUNED for an upcoming live chat with an author - date TBD!

• SEPTEMBER 20 | Saturday at 11 am Pacific | Book of Hours & Ordinary Time II check-in
  » Paid Subscribers: Bring your pile of liturgical year resources & inspiration, and any questions or struggles with the rhythms in Ordinary Time II!

Fresh Posts & Previous Archives

• SEPTEMBER 2 | Tuesday | September Almanac posted - start printing out your pages!
  

• SEPTEMBER 8 | Monday | Marymas
  

• FIRST HALF OF SEPTEMBER | Review of The Art of Living in Advent: 28 Days of Joyful Waiting by Sylvie Vanhoozer
  

• FIRST HALF OF SEPTEMBER | Making Sense of Ordinary Time II
  

• SEPTEMBER 14 | Sunday | Roodmas
  

• FIRST HALF OF SEPTEMBER | Monthly focus & resources available for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15)
  

• SEPTEMBER 17 | Wednesday | St. Hildegard von Bingen
  

• SECOND HALF OF SEPTEMBER | Botanical Liturgy: Linden
  

• SEPTEMBER 28 | Sunday | Michaelmas

You can also find this calendar of upcoming events posted in the Village Green

Since I’m going to be launching a new ‘Botanical Liturgies’ series this September (having mulled it over for the past couple months - so many rabbit-holes to dive down!!), I thought it would be fun & fitting to build a September Herbarium together. It’s an invitation with a whimsical spin, encouraging us all to learn more about these botanicals and the feasts to which they’re tied.

So, here’s a “liturgical naturalist’s log” for September - with flowers for Our Lady, of course, and other botanicals symbolic of the feasts we mark this month.

• Print out the coloring sheets - each flower represents a different feast, with a tidbit or two about their connection included in the notes

• Look up each feast’s flower in a book or online: consider the different color variations, read about where it grows, how it appears in different cultures and regions…in other words, get to know this bloom a bit better. What history does it have in your own life?

By the end of the month, you’ll be more familiar with these beautiful feast days & saints, as well as the emblematic flowers that are tied to them.

Available in the Scriptorium for paid subscribers:

This September, let’s dive into the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, looking at this beautiful, poignant day in its context with Roodmas (the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, placed right before OLOS!)

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

• Paid members will receive a printable cover page and booklet for their liturgical year binders

Our summer has been full of both joys and struggles, incredible pilgrimages, and lots of outdoor time…memories that will stay with me for a lifetime. And yet, honestly, I’m ready to settle into our September patterns, with a bit more structure to the days.

Thank you so, so much for being here with me! Your support helps me to continue researching, reflecting, & creating art, which gets poured back into this wonderful liturgical ecosystem…through resources created just for you, as well as the financial support that I can in turn offer to all of the authors, teachers, & creators who join us as guest speakers.

Pax et bonum,
Kristin