This past Saturday my family and I finally put Christmas away. The outside lights are down and the tree by now has been turned to mulch. With the New Year I determined to cut back on my sugar intake for 2018. Like many of you I’m still doing pretty good holding true to this resolution. We’ll see how I’m doing come Feb. 1. Today also marks the first day back to school for my kids. And over the next week or two we will get back into the normal daily rhythms that are disrupted with a two-week Christmas break. With the excitement of Christmas and New Year’s now past we enter into what is called, in the Christian calendar, Ordinary Time. In Latin, tempus per annum, is typically the period between the Epiphany (Jan. 6) and Lent. Throughout history this has been a period that Christians around the world further engage in the “mysteries of Christ”. One of the best ways of engaging in these “mysteries” is to participate in the ancient spiritual practices of tithing, fasting, daily reading of the Scriptures, and prayer. And what better time of the year to begin these practices than at the beginning of a New Year. Fasting has always intimidated me because of my absolute love of food. That’s something that I need to work on this coming year. As I am challenged in the area of fasting will you be challenged and join me as, together, we engage in the spiritual practices of our ancient forefathers?
RECOMMENDED VIDEO TO WATCH:
This 18-minute video captures the thoughts of noted author and speaker Phyllis Tickle.
http://qideas.org/videos/recovering-the-ancient-practices-1/