Liturgy of the Month: November 2022
I love the change of seasons. I’ve lived in the upper Great Lakes region for all my life, and I have loved watching spring leap into summer, fade into fall, and rest into winter. One of my favorite moments in the yearly cycle was seeing the days shorten. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved when that particular autumn Sunday arrived and we set our clocks back an hour and left behind the arrogant artificial construct of “daylight savings,” (as if daylight was something one can save). That day still holds excitement for me. I love the moment when darkness has arrived, and you think it’s already 6:30pm but discover it’s still 5:30pm and there’s so much more of the day left to you!
This is a feeling that I’m told is not shared by all. While there are some whose hearts also thrill at the darkening of days, there are others for whom the lessening of daylight hours carries a much weightier effect. With the arrival of early sunsets comes the cold, the fear of the dark, the realities of seasonal depression, and the often desolate and isolating months of winter.
So, I wrote this liturgy to try to find a way to hold these experiences of the darkening of days in tandem with each other. I am fascinated with calendrical rites and how the observance of a ritual which is tied to a yearly occurrence can ground us in our own day to day rhythms and wanted to write my own.
I wrote this liturgy to be enacted by a group lit by candlelight. I highly recommend this element. Even if you’re reading it by yourself, take a moment to light a candle and hold back the night for a moment with that small bit of light.
Thank you for taking the time to read this liturgy. If you would like to hear more about this liturgy, the crew at Wayfolk Arts recorded a whole episode about it on our Podcast “Liturgical Shenanigans.” You can listen to that conversation here:
A Liturgy for the Darkening of Days
To be enacted on the evening of the first Saturday of November; the day before the end of daylight savings time. This liturgy assumes a winter season in which it grows colder and the light lessens.
A Word Concerning Preparation
This rite is best practiced within the context of a family or a small group of friends. The location should be the home of the HOST leading the enactment.
Prior to the enactment of the liturgy a candle must be obtained to be given to each of the participants. It is also advised that the host make some meal or dessert to be eaten after the ritual. Bonus points for having it be slowly cooking in a crockpot so that the smells of food on the way permeate the ritual.
The room must be lit by two separate light sources to enable the ENACTORS to turn off one source of light and then the other. The room should not be in complete darkness until the second light is extinguished.
Each of the ENACTORS must bring a blanket of their own to be given to someone else during the ritual.
The blankets, candles, and matches are set at each spot in a circle of seats to enable the ENACTORS to easily access them.
HOST:
Beloved Lord,
We gather tonight in gratitude
for your many gifts to us.
Gifts of Warmth and Friendship
Gifts of Harvest and of Sustenance
Gifts of Light and Gifts of Darkness.
ALL:
Remember to us now creator Lord
The stories of your goodness in our lives.
The HOST invites those gathered into a time of storytelling, in which the ENACTORS each turn to their neighbor and tell each other a story from their summers or a story of joy in the past few months.
In the fullness of time, the HOST welcomes the ENACTORS to wrap up their stories.
HOST:
For each of these moments of joy and connection
We give thanks to you lord God
ALL:
May they recall us to warmth in the cold months ahead.
READER 1:
Lord we are gathered here ahead of a new season of coming darkness.
We know that you have made the moon to mark the seasons;
You caused the Sun to know its time for setting.
You make Darkness and wrap the world in night.
We thank you that you have guided all creation into order.
We thank you for the goodness in all the seasons of your creation.
ENACTOR 1 rises and switches off the first set of lights putting the room into semi-darkness.
READER 2:
Lord who forms light and makes darkness,
We also name the pain of this season.
As the winter months take us further from summer stories,
The dark becomes a more present companion.
With the dark
Comes cold, comes stress, comes sadness, comes loss.
Hold our spiraling thoughts, our depression, our longing for brighter days,
And show us the way through to the light of a new morning.
ENACTOR 2 rises and prepares to switch off the second set of lights
READER 3:
Lord of Light,
We offer our worries, our sadness,
our weariness, our fear of the dark to you.
In this time of silence,
we ask that you hear the prayers of our hearts.
ENACTOR 2 switches off the second set of lights putting the room in darkness.
Silence is kept.
In the fullness of time, the HOST lights their candle. Then reads…
HOST:
In our distress we have cried out, Lord.
And you have heard us.
We thank you that no darkness is too great for you.
Nothing we have held before you is surprising or new to you.
Nothing we have named is greater than your love for us.
Even if we fear this coming time of darkness,
We know you are a God who makes their home in thick darkness.
Darkness doesn’t threaten you.
And there is no darkness that separates us from you.
The HOST starts to hum a familiar tune (i.e. Amazing Grace, In the Bleak Midwinter, the a beloved theme from a film, or any meditative tune the group knows). As the ENACTORS join the humming, each candle is passed and used to light the match which lights the next candle and on until the all the candles are lit.
READER 4:
It is written in Isaiah 60 that
God’s bright glory has risen for you.
The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,
all people sunk in deep darkness,
But God rises on you,
his sunrise glory breaks over you.
Nations will come to your light,
kings to your sunburst brightness.
Look up! Look around!
Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you:
Your sons coming from great distances,
your daughters carried by their nannies.
When you see them coming you’ll smile—big smiles!
Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!
This is the word of the Lord
ALL:
Thanks be to God
HOST:
Lord, this season is one of darkness.
But we do not enter it alone.
We thank you for the gift of friends.
We thank you for those who will journey beside us these cold months,
Whose company, conversation, and love
Will wrap around us, warm our hearts, and keep us looking for the light.
The HOST takes the blanket they brought, drapes it over the shoulders of another ENACTOR, and speaks the following phrase.
HOST:
From my heart to yours.
The ENACTOR who was given a blanket then takes the blanket they brought, drapes it over the shoulders of another ENACTOR, and speaks the above phrase. This process is repeated until all ENACTORS have been given a blanket.
HOST:
May our hearts be filled throughout this season,
ALL:
That we may live in love with each other
and with your creation.
May these gifts of light and of warmth,
help to keep us steady in the coming months.
That we may hold each other up when we stumble.
May these blankets from one friend’s home to another
remind us of the community we have in each other,
That we may reach out to each other
when the darkness seeks to overcome.
And may these candles remind us
That our lord is present with us in darkness and in light,
That we may know we are never alone.
Amen
With that the HOST invites all to eat the prepared food and drink. The lights are turned back on and the gathered group shares time in community until the wee hours of the morning. They get an extra hour of sleep after all.