Published by Novalis, 2018
Review by Laura Locke
Steve Bell
My husband and I count ourselves as members of the legion of longtime fans of singer/songwriter Steve Bell and his music. Not only do we own most of his CDs, but we’ve also enjoyed seeing him in concert many times over the past few decades. Each time we see him perform live, we are blown away by the beautiful songs that he crafts, his stellar guitar-playing, and his warm, rich vocals. However, as anyone who has been to one of his concerts knows, another big part of the pleasure is Steve’s storytelling. Because of that, I was delighted to hear that Steve has written a seven-book series called Pilgrim Year, published by Novalis Press. In the series, Steve takes readers on a journey through the major seasons and feasts of the Christian liturgical calendar, gifting us along the way with an abundance of personal anecdotes, observations, stories from the lives of various Christian figures, and poetry – not to mention his keen theological insights. As well, there is a companion website where you can find songs and videos associated with each chapter (or a 2-CD set with the songs, which can be purchased).
Steve came late to an interest in the ancient Church calendar. Growing up in a Christian tradition that was, as he puts it, “largely suspicious of the liturgical and traditional”, it was as an adult that he came to slowly develop a great appreciation for the wisdom he discovered in the Church calendar. His new book series take us through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Ordinary Time. Each book is less than 100 pages and can be purchased separately or as a box set. Whether you are familiar with the Liturgical calendar or just learning about it, Steve’s own growing delight in the Church’s seasons, remembrances, feasts and sacred stories lights the way like a beacon.
Like Steve, the Christian Church calendar was not something I knew much about as a child or young woman. Beyond the celebrations of Christmas and Easter, it wasn’t emphasized in the churches I attended back then. When I was introduced to it in more detail, much later, I thought it sounded rather monotonous – like a circle going around and around, treading the same path each year. Then a young priest, to whom I was teaching English, explained to me that it was more like a spiral, going ever upward. Each year, he explained, we are farther along – farther up, you might say – in our lives and in our faith. Each year we see the liturgical seasons, celebrations, fast days and feast days from a higher vantage point on the spiral. Each year, as we encounter them all again, we gain new insights – thanks in part to the 365 days of fresh experiences under our belt.
Steve Bell puts it this way:
The Church tells and retells her sacred stories year after year, much as a mother to her children who ask for the same stories night after night. And like any good child’s tale, they continue to reward well into adulthood. Each time we rehearse and reharrow these stories, we unearth something new precisely because there is so much more to receive, but also because our capacity to receive has deepened.
My box set of Pilgrim Year arrived in the mail near the beginning of last fall, as summer was slipping away. Excited, I plunged into the reflections on the season of “Ordinary Time”, and relished Steve’s guidance as we travelled through The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and the Feast of Christ the King. This left me hungry and thirsty for more, so I backtracked to read about the Church celebrations which occur earlier in Ordinary Time, such as Trinity Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost), the Nativity of John the Baptist, The Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, and the Feast of St. Clare of Assisi.
I gained new understanding when Steve explained the social context of the place and times during which St. Francis and St. Clare lived, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It gave extra colour and depth to their stories. And I was challenged when the Feast of Christ the King led Steve to contemplate our servant king and his upside-down kingdom, where the “lofty are brought down and the lowly lifted up”. Steve writes:
It causes me to weep tears of both awe and shame. I am complicit in the structures and systems that allow for the wretchedness to exist alongside historically unprecedented privilege. Yet, what makes me get up in the morning, dust off my shame and jump back into the story is the firm conviction that the story isn’t over.
I also know that my spirit was fed and watered by Steve’s rich insights, such as when he shared these thoughts on the Nativity of John the Baptist:
If it only be an accident that in the northern hemisphere, the nativity of John falls at the summer solstice, when the days begin to shorten, and that Jesus’ nativity falls at the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, then it is a happy accident. For John, in relationship to Jesus, instinctively knew that “he (Jesus) must increase, but I (John) must decrease” (John 3:30). If John the Baptist is the dimming light of the Old Covenant, and Jesus is the ascending light of the new, then this is the stuff of poets.
Needless to say, in the months that followed Ordinary Time, I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying Steve through his Advent and Christmas books – and am now hiking my way with great pleasure through the season of Epiphany, which we are in presently. Last Sunday I read his reflection of The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Feb. 3), and was intrigued to learn the reasons why the Feast is sometimes called Candlemas. I was also moved to discover that the sacrificial offering that Mary and Joseph brought to the Temple that day were two turtledoves, an offering designated for the very poor. It was a stark reminder to me of the Holy Family’s poverty.
I also loved Steve’s reflections on that aged pair, Simeon and Anna, who welcomed the Holy Family at the Temple. The stories of these “venerable elders” sparked beautiful memories that Steve shared of his own father, and his grandmother. He also reflected on Simeon’s words to Mary, that her little baby was “destined to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” (Luke 2: 34,35) Those words are always deeply moving, and caused me to think about the joys and sorrows of motherhood that I’ve experienced. Steve also points out that Simeon’s words to Mary begin our slow “turn” from the season of Epiphany to Lent and Holy Week. (I’m really looking forward to what Steve has to say about Lent – fertile ground for deep thoughts, I’m sure.)
Not only does the rhythm of the liturgical year help keep us in closer touch with many of the great events and figures of our faith, it also invites us to take more notice of the seasons of the earth. It’s caused me to become more aware of the ways our lives intersect with nature’s patterns and rhythms – the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the ebb and flow of the ocean tides, the swelling buds in spring and the falling leaves of autumn, the migration of birds…as well as our own daily rhythms of sleeping and waking, working and resting. Our very breath and heartbeat are reminders of life’s rhythms moving within and around us. I find it all very reassuring and “whole-making”, that even as things are constantly changing, they are in many ways remaining the same. Steve writes that pilgriming through these familiar yet ever-new stories in the Church calendar, and absorbing them as a living tradition, has “fashioned in me a unified mind, body and soul capable of loving God and loving all that God loves.”
I know I’ll be returning to these books for spiritual sustenance for many, many years to come, and sharing them with friends and family. I’ll leave the last word to Joan Chittister, Benedictine nun, theologian and author, whom Steve quotes from her book The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life:
Like a great waterwheel, the liturgical year goes on relentlessly irrigating our soul, softening the ground of our hearts, nourishing the soil of our lives until the seed of the word of God itself begins to grow in us, comes to fruit in us, ripens us in the spiritual journey of a lifetime.
You can purchase Steve Bell’s Pilgrim Year books in a box set or individually from his website or at Novalis Publishing.
