You haven't heard an update on our Liturgical Tree in quite a while....and here's why--We made the changes for Pentecost and then settled into the rush of solemnities that followed so quickly behind it as well as the special call to honor our Blessed Mother in Her month. After Pentecost, the kids found the tree covered in 16 pink buds. The dove rested in his the nest we had built as we waited for Him and the blue bird that symbolizes Mary perched in our branches throughout May. We left the tree this way and feasted with the church throughout May. In June, we settled into the gentler rhythm of ordinary time and marked it by moving the sun across our frame to the middle. The dove and its nest as well as the little blue bird disappeared, leaving us with a tree covered in buds.
Quinn was away for the past three weeks and begged that I not let anything happen to the three while he was gone, so we begin our plans for Ordinary Time officially this week.
Each of those pink buds will blossom into a white flower with the pink as its center. They represent the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. We will focus on spiritual growth during ordinary time by cultivating the presence of these graces in our lives.
I am going to pull copywork for Quinn and explanations for each of the gifts from this article which I found really helpful. Once a week at morning prayer, a flower will bud and we'll discuss the gift it represents. Each night at evening prayer, we'll talk further about ways in which we find this gift present in our lives, times we might most need it, and what efforts we can make to cultivate it. The younger kids be decorating the letters G-R-O-W-T-H to stretch across our Liturgical Line (a ribbon "clothesline" stretched across our mantle).
When we have covered the Gifts of the Spirit, we will move on to the Fruits of the Spirit. To my delight, my new student and teacher planners (thanks, Gran Gran), which I find a new reason to love each time I touch them, have lessons on the fruits of the Spirit detailed out in them for me! So we'll follow those as our buds flower over the weeks of ordinary time.
Once our buds have opened, we'll find them bearing their fruit (apples) which will represent the virtues.
I'm still fleshing out the Advent plans in my mind, but my thought is to build a ladder up the tree with each rung representing a special thing we have done to prepare our hearts for our Saviour. We'll spend the Christmas season harvesting our fruit to present to the Newborn King at Epiphany. We'll focus on the virtue of charity in those weeks, and harvest an apple for each act we perform. In Lent, there was caterpillar that represented Jesus and then in Easter, a butterfly. We had our dove for Pentecost and our blue bird for May. She'll reappear as we mark the Marian feasts of the year, and the caterpillar and butterfly will visit on the feast of Transfiguration. I'm hoping to make birds to mark the saints feast days: a red one for martyrs, a white one for virgins, etc....and I am mulling special symbols for advent and Christmas.
As I flesh out my weekly presentations, I'll try to come back and share them here. It's not too late to make your own Liturgical Tree and travel with us as we celebrate the richness of our faith. Do join us, we are really enjoying this path!