The Most Enchanted Time of the Year

This post from 2019 came back to mind, and I wanted to share it again with a few edits:

Back in the early days of blogging, a lot of us low church Protestants who had discovered the riches in the liturgical calendar would write a lot about how Christmas extended past December 25. "It's still Christmas!" we would write, encouraging everyone to keep their trees and decorations up for the full twelve days of Christmas, all the way to January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.

Well, guess what?

It's still Easter!

Eastertide runs for forty days, all the way to the celebration of the Ascension, and then for ten more days until Pentecost. There are, traditionally, six whole Sundays of Easter. All that to say, Easter is just getting started. This year, 2023, it's Easter all the way to May 27.

Personally, I find the forty days between Easter and the Ascension to be the most enchanted time of the year. Jesus is alive and appears, intermittently, to his followers over the span of forty days. That's a fascinating interval, this season between resurrection and ascension. It's a season of joy and surprising encounters. For forty days, Jesus can turn up anywhere and at anytime.

I've not heard a lot of talk, discussion, or sermons about these forty days. We talk a great deal about Advent and Christmas, Lent, Passion Week, and Easter Sunday, but not a lot about the spirituality of these forty days, what lessons they might teach us and how they can form us.

Taking a cue from Hunting Magic Eels, Easter isn't just the shock of the empty tomb. Easter Sunday kicks off a forty day season of surprising, unexpected encounters with the Risen Lord. This is a season for practicing joyful and expectant attention and watchfulness. 

For those who have eyes, let them see.