The Yearly Cycle

Hi Soul 🌻

Be still. Be rooted. Be renewed.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." — Hebrews 13:8

Take a moment to pause before reading.

Notice the season you are in.

Notice what is beginning.

Notice what is ending.

Notice what God may be asking you to remember.

The Church year teaches us that faith is not lived as a straight line. It is lived in cycles of fasting and feasting, repentance and joy, preparation and fulfillment.

We return again and again to the same mysteries — Pascha, Pentecost, the Incarnation, the Cross, the saints, the Theotokos — not because nothing changes, but because we do.

Each year, the same feast meets us as different people.

The Byzantine tradition invites us not merely to remember what God once did, but to participate in His saving work today.

Here is a question to carry with you as you read:

What mystery of God might I be ready to receive differently this year?

I continue my journey through the Byzantine Catholic Catechism with Fr. Ed from St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church in New York.

This time I'm sharing from Chapter 3 — The Yearly Cycle, which explores Pascha as the Feast of Feasts, the movable and immovable cycles of the Church year, the Great Fast, Pentecost, the feasts of Christ and the Theotokos, the communion of saints, and how the liturgical year gradually forms us into a life of prayer, repentance, celebration, and holiness.

Below, I'll share my reading notes, reflections, and the questions and conversations that emerged during this catechism meeting.