Regarding our 'lost connection to the natural world', I feel that's partly due to people getting outside less often. I know for me, I fail to get outside when it's really cold or really hot (I live in Texas). I want to hibernate in winter, and in the summer, when it moves too far above 100 degrees, I tend to stay inside. Really, both extremes are tolerable. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that getting out and experiencing the seasons might help us be more conscious of the passage of time, help restore our connection to the natural world, and maybe lessen the sensation that life goes by too quickly.
I have lived in every type of place from the middle of farmland in the Midwest where at night you could see the Milky Way, to the intensity of 13 million people surrounding me in Moscow. I lived in a tiny village of a million, a medium sized town of 8 million, and often visited a local city of 25 million inhabitants, the concrete jungle of Shanghai, all in densely populated China.
In China, there was so much pollution that you could not see the moon and definitely not the stars. You could stare straight at the sun in the middle of the summer and it were as though looking at the moon. One never saw rainbows and rarely clouds. There is virtually no love among strangers and I witnessed such a deficit of the soul there.
My husband taught in the inner-city. Many of his students were filled with intense rage, blaming everyone else for every choice they made. One girl blamed "White People" because she had never seen the moon! All she had to do was to walk outside and look up. She blamed because she was taught to blame. She was not taught to simply open her eyes and keep an open heart. It was heart-breaking. She was trapped inside her head instead of seeing the world around her. I think many of the problems in the inner-city would be solved if only they were able to witness the Milky Way. No problem we have is so large that that it cannot pale to the enormity of the universe that we can see, much less the one which we cannot.
Nestled among farms in the Midwest, are some of the best, most reasonable, down-to-earth people you will ever meet. They know the cycles of the moon, the seasons, and stop to help a complete stranger.
All this to say, yes! When we disconnect from nature, from God, and quite often our very humanity.
The FishEaters website's "Being Catholic" section is good for this sort of thing: http://www.fisheaters.com/beingcatholic.html At the top right are an explanation of "church time" (the liturgical year) and a link to another section with individual pages on all the different feasts and how to celebrate them in the traditional way (the site uses the 1962 liturgical calendar, so includes Ember Days and Rogation Days, etc.)
This morning was my first experience of Candlemas and the marking of the Presentation. Observing this stage of the liturgical calendar in church, joining in the prayers, the lighting of the candles, and receiving the blessing brought me into synch with the world.
You know, I thought that I enjoyed my seasonal hobbies because they're gone long enough to start missing them. But your essay made me realize they provide a deeper subconscious tuning to the order of nature.
Good thoughts. But you can't skate over the truly wonderful determination of Easter by the Church. Previous to the astronomical calculations, Easter/ AKA passover/AKA the actual beginning of Spring, was determined by the Jews based on observing specific crops coming up, barley being one of them. This works pretty well as long as youre in the vicinity of the Mediterranean. But the Church had grown much larger than that and, without instantaneous communications, did not have the entire Church world celebrating on the same day. Thus Pope Gregory got all the astronomical talent together and discovered a formula that corelated the motions of the sun, the earth and the moon to determine when Spring actually began, i,e, Easter. From that point on all in the Church knew when Easter began and, BTW, discovered the Gregorian Calendar in the process, which is what the world uses today.
I have been contributing the discussion of re-enchantment in my recent writings as well. One note is that, it is a Natural Expression. https://substack.com/@jmackinder/p-153607732
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I have growing unease with some Churches’ abandonment of the liturgical year. I’ve found the book ‘My Book of the Church’s Year’ by Enid Chadwick to be a useful illustrated summary for those who want to explore Church feast days/ seasons and don’t know where to start. But being part of a Church that has this already is obviously preferable.
This is a wonderful essay, thank you. And thanks to Dudley for the hat-tip to your Substack.
I would also add - that in abandoning the structure of our liturgies (or being subjected to their abandonment), we are left to wallow in liturgical hedonism, to borrow your words. If you have not read it, and love the Roman liturgy - Martin Mosebach's The Heresy of Formlessness expresses beautifully (and tragically) how loss of form has led to loss of souls.
Never knew Groundhog Day was a secular version of the sacred calendar. Great article overall, on all points, but I especially appreciate you adding that particular wrinkle to my brain.
I think what this article says is mostly true but it doesn’t convince me completely because it fails to take into account that Christianity, though universal, developed in the north and in the south, where there was no Christianity until quite recently (last few centuries), the seasons are the opposite of those at the north! Couldn’t this be a sign that Christianity is also meant to transcend the natural world?
This is a great question. The answer is somewhat strange to modern ears. The answer is that the Northern hemisphere is the "upright" one, and the southern hemisphere is "upside down"- literally. Not subjectively. Why? Because Christ chose to incarnate in the North. Therefore, it is center stage of history. And so while yes, in the South everything is inverted, but that is not really relevant. The role of the South is to be the upside-down land. Maybe I can talk more on this at some point
This was my first thought, actually, when reading. It does bring about the question of how Christian would grow and change according to how far out in the universe humans may reach, as there is no solar time set the same way anywhere else as on earth...it would be set to another point.
interesting thought. Perhaps the Church needs to futher develop the astronomical calculations for the determination of Easter so as to apply to the determination of Easter in the Southern Hemisphere; although that may defeat the oringal intent which was to have Easter and the related movable Feasts all celebrated simultaneously around the world.
Unfortunately Substack doesn’t have a one-time donation option, I would prefer it did. For now I'm happy for people to just read for free. But thank you for asking!
It’s very easy to add a link to buy me a coffee or Paypal. I put one at the end of all my (infrequent) posts.
I can always take out a sub to you for a month and then cancel but that’s a fiddle and a hassle for both of us. I’ve been asking Substack to provide a pay per view for months but no one appears to be listening 😂
Congratulations on the birth of your daughter!
Regarding our 'lost connection to the natural world', I feel that's partly due to people getting outside less often. I know for me, I fail to get outside when it's really cold or really hot (I live in Texas). I want to hibernate in winter, and in the summer, when it moves too far above 100 degrees, I tend to stay inside. Really, both extremes are tolerable. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that getting out and experiencing the seasons might help us be more conscious of the passage of time, help restore our connection to the natural world, and maybe lessen the sensation that life goes by too quickly.
I have lived in every type of place from the middle of farmland in the Midwest where at night you could see the Milky Way, to the intensity of 13 million people surrounding me in Moscow. I lived in a tiny village of a million, a medium sized town of 8 million, and often visited a local city of 25 million inhabitants, the concrete jungle of Shanghai, all in densely populated China.
In China, there was so much pollution that you could not see the moon and definitely not the stars. You could stare straight at the sun in the middle of the summer and it were as though looking at the moon. One never saw rainbows and rarely clouds. There is virtually no love among strangers and I witnessed such a deficit of the soul there.
My husband taught in the inner-city. Many of his students were filled with intense rage, blaming everyone else for every choice they made. One girl blamed "White People" because she had never seen the moon! All she had to do was to walk outside and look up. She blamed because she was taught to blame. She was not taught to simply open her eyes and keep an open heart. It was heart-breaking. She was trapped inside her head instead of seeing the world around her. I think many of the problems in the inner-city would be solved if only they were able to witness the Milky Way. No problem we have is so large that that it cannot pale to the enormity of the universe that we can see, much less the one which we cannot.
Nestled among farms in the Midwest, are some of the best, most reasonable, down-to-earth people you will ever meet. They know the cycles of the moon, the seasons, and stop to help a complete stranger.
All this to say, yes! When we disconnect from nature, from God, and quite often our very humanity.
The FishEaters website's "Being Catholic" section is good for this sort of thing: http://www.fisheaters.com/beingcatholic.html At the top right are an explanation of "church time" (the liturgical year) and a link to another section with individual pages on all the different feasts and how to celebrate them in the traditional way (the site uses the 1962 liturgical calendar, so includes Ember Days and Rogation Days, etc.)
This morning was my first experience of Candlemas and the marking of the Presentation. Observing this stage of the liturgical calendar in church, joining in the prayers, the lighting of the candles, and receiving the blessing brought me into synch with the world.
Lot to contemplate here. Thanks so much.
You know, I thought that I enjoyed my seasonal hobbies because they're gone long enough to start missing them. But your essay made me realize they provide a deeper subconscious tuning to the order of nature.
Excellent read!
Good thoughts. But you can't skate over the truly wonderful determination of Easter by the Church. Previous to the astronomical calculations, Easter/ AKA passover/AKA the actual beginning of Spring, was determined by the Jews based on observing specific crops coming up, barley being one of them. This works pretty well as long as youre in the vicinity of the Mediterranean. But the Church had grown much larger than that and, without instantaneous communications, did not have the entire Church world celebrating on the same day. Thus Pope Gregory got all the astronomical talent together and discovered a formula that corelated the motions of the sun, the earth and the moon to determine when Spring actually began, i,e, Easter. From that point on all in the Church knew when Easter began and, BTW, discovered the Gregorian Calendar in the process, which is what the world uses today.
Yes it's a fascinating history, I just didn't want to bog down the essay with the explanation of Easter dates. Maybe a story for another time
Congratulations on the birth of your daughter.
Thank you!
And to Simeon, who could fulfill his season.
I have been contributing the discussion of re-enchantment in my recent writings as well. One note is that, it is a Natural Expression. https://substack.com/@jmackinder/p-153607732
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I have growing unease with some Churches’ abandonment of the liturgical year. I’ve found the book ‘My Book of the Church’s Year’ by Enid Chadwick to be a useful illustrated summary for those who want to explore Church feast days/ seasons and don’t know where to start. But being part of a Church that has this already is obviously preferable.
Today was my first Candlemas, I’m glad I didn’t sleep in. We also had a baptism and chrismation, beautiful. I appreciate the article, thank you!
Of course, being an Old Calendar Greek Orthodox Anglo-Welshman, my Church year is the same as the Apostles at Pentecost.
Happy Candlemas, and congratulations.
May it be a good year for all, keeping all flames, large and small, alive in our hearts.
This is a wonderful essay, thank you. And thanks to Dudley for the hat-tip to your Substack.
I would also add - that in abandoning the structure of our liturgies (or being subjected to their abandonment), we are left to wallow in liturgical hedonism, to borrow your words. If you have not read it, and love the Roman liturgy - Martin Mosebach's The Heresy of Formlessness expresses beautifully (and tragically) how loss of form has led to loss of souls.
Never knew Groundhog Day was a secular version of the sacred calendar. Great article overall, on all points, but I especially appreciate you adding that particular wrinkle to my brain.
I think what this article says is mostly true but it doesn’t convince me completely because it fails to take into account that Christianity, though universal, developed in the north and in the south, where there was no Christianity until quite recently (last few centuries), the seasons are the opposite of those at the north! Couldn’t this be a sign that Christianity is also meant to transcend the natural world?
This is a great question. The answer is somewhat strange to modern ears. The answer is that the Northern hemisphere is the "upright" one, and the southern hemisphere is "upside down"- literally. Not subjectively. Why? Because Christ chose to incarnate in the North. Therefore, it is center stage of history. And so while yes, in the South everything is inverted, but that is not really relevant. The role of the South is to be the upside-down land. Maybe I can talk more on this at some point
This was my first thought, actually, when reading. It does bring about the question of how Christian would grow and change according to how far out in the universe humans may reach, as there is no solar time set the same way anywhere else as on earth...it would be set to another point.
interesting thought. Perhaps the Church needs to futher develop the astronomical calculations for the determination of Easter so as to apply to the determination of Easter in the Southern Hemisphere; although that may defeat the oringal intent which was to have Easter and the related movable Feasts all celebrated simultaneously around the world.
Christianity developed in the Northern Hemisphere, by God’s Grace, and was transplanted to the Southern.
Can’t afford a recurring sub - why not add a buy-me-à-coffee or paypal me link for us indigents ?
Unfortunately Substack doesn’t have a one-time donation option, I would prefer it did. For now I'm happy for people to just read for free. But thank you for asking!
It’s very easy to add a link to buy me a coffee or Paypal. I put one at the end of all my (infrequent) posts.
I can always take out a sub to you for a month and then cancel but that’s a fiddle and a hassle for both of us. I’ve been asking Substack to provide a pay per view for months but no one appears to be listening 😂