Introducing Rhythms of Habit - a newsletter about approaching the church calendar as an apprenticeship in holiness

    I am thrilled to introduce Rhythms of Habit, a newsletter about approaching the Church Calendar as an apprenticeship in Holiness.

    In addition to (hopefully) being a helpful and informative newsletter, this project is also a means of finalizing the draft of my next book, called Rhythms of Habit: The Church Calendar as an Apprenticeship in Holiness.

    If you are already sold, head on over to Substack to join as a free or paid subscriber. If you need to hear more, read on!

    A little more about the Rhythms of Habit project:

    As we live out the Christian Year together, three types of posts will be published:

    • Introductory: these posts explain how following the calendar is good for your growth as a Christian. The first three of these are free to everyone, and help give a foundation for why you might want to start following the Church Calendar.
    • About the Church Calendar: these posts share the history of the church calendar, some things that are helpful to know, and help answer common questions. Why do we celebrate saints? What is Epiphany really about? How did these seasons develop? What is a Triduum?
    • Holy Day / Holy Season Reflections: these posts are the real core of the newsletter. As we encounter Holy Days and Holy Seasons throughout the year, you will be given habits to consider adopting that are rooted in who or what is being celebrated by that day or season.

    If you are new here or new to the Church Calendar, you may want to explore the free introductory posts. Think of these as the introductory foundation of the newsletter.

    More of these Introductory posts, along with many About the Church Calendar posts will be sent throughout the year to subscribers.

    But here is the real core of the newsletter: Holy Day and Holy Season reflections.

    As we progress through the Church Calendar year after year, reflections on major and minor Holy Days will be shared. Yes, you will learn more about the calendar itself. But more importantly you will be given daily or seasonal practices and habits to adopt, in hopes that these habits will help you grow in Christ. You can find a free preview of these sort of reflections here: Feast of St. Joseph.

    Why Subscribe?

    Free subscribers have access to some of these posts throughout the Church Year. If you like what you are reading, consider becoming a paid subscriber to make sure you receive all new reflections as they are published, and gain access to reading all old reflections, too.

    The first Holy Day reflection will be on September 14th, when we celebrate Holy Cross Day. Subscribe by then to make sure you don’t miss a post!

    But a new major era seems to be just beginning in the shadow of the old and dying modernism. I have a name for it, for what it’s worth. I call it trans-modernism. We’re moving into a new historical period in which we will rediscover the validity of a lot of our traditional understanding, but we’re going to discover it intellectually.

    Almost an aside in Paul Vitz’ Socrates in the City talk on Fatherhood. But an intriguing one nonetheless.