As we leave the celebrations which began at Christmas, and prepare to enter Lent and it's call "to prayer, to trust and dedication" while "God brings new beauty nigh," here's a spiritual feast of prayers to parallel the physical feast of pancakes!
The Christian Calendar is a promiscuous invention, because sometimes there's a Second Sunday after Christmas (but usually not), and sometimes Epiphanytide manages 8 full weeks (but almost never).
This year we didn't have a Second Sunday, and yet, to my mind, its appointed Collect (or Prayer) is one of the most profound and loveliest of any prayer I know.
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
And this year we also missed out on the Collect for the Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany, another prayer of beauty and grace:
Most loving Father, who will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
The first of these prayers dates to the 5th or 6th centuries, and the second was written by William Bright, a 19th century Anglican priest.
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I am currently reading Kindling the Celtic Spirit, by Mara Freeman (New York: HarperCollins, 2001).
It's organized by months, and here's a portion from page 72, titled "Preparing the Ground"— an apt reading as we enter Lent:
"A seed will remain forever dormant unless it is planted in earth that has been well prepared for it.
"What groundwork do you need to do before you can give expression to your soul?
"As the plow may encounter hard, stony soil, we may allow all sorts of things to get in the way of making changes.
"Take a look at any resistance you may have to working toward your most important goals.
"In the modern world we are continually bombarded with distracting stimuli.
"The straight, orderly furrows of a plowed field remind us of the need to focus on our own projects.
"Look at ways you can clear space and time for cultivating the soul."
Albrecht Dürer
"Christ appears to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener"
ca 1503-1504
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