A few weeks ago, I celebrated what would have been my Grandma Audrey’s 100th birthday. We honored her by making homemade ice cream, a treat we had so many times at Grandma and Grandpa’s cottage on the lake. Many years ago, at our dining room table, my husband Ryan and I started talking about Feast Days. Within the Christian tradition, feast days are days where we honor and celebrate someone or something who has been important to our faith. Traditionally, we’ll celebrate people like St. Francis of Assisi, a lover of animals, with a pet blessing. Maybe someone will celebrate the feast day of Mother Teresa by visiting someone who is sick. Or I personally think celebrating St. Gertrude, lover of cats, would be best done by playing with cats! Ryan and I have been thinking about looking at the Feast Day calendar within its tradition and finding which we could celebrate in our family regularly. We didn’t stop there though. At Nourished, we’ve had many conversations about keeping the legacy of passed family members alive. We try to talk about our ancestors regularly so our daughter can know who they are and know who she’s named after- two of her great-grandmothers. Last month, at the Nourished biweekly gathering called “Centering”, we were in a series called “Crowded Table.” When we started thinking about this series, we thought about feasting, something that naturally happens around the dinner table. So during our Centering gathering, we talked about the idea of feasting, celebrating feast days, and the spiritual practice of setting our own feasts. We talked about what we want to celebrate in our own spirituality, but also in the wider Nourished community. I think for me, every year on my grandparents’ birthday, I want to eat something that reminds me of them. I want to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes in the year as I hold a very creation-based spirituality. Who has been meaningful in your life that you want to celebrate? What feast days could you set and how will you celebrate them? ~ Pastor Kristina
Celebrating Feast Days – by Pastor Kristina
