birthdays: a part of the church year?

A year ago today, I was very, very, very pregnant. In fact, a year ago tomorrow, I was to wake up at about 2 am, not to go to sleep again till just before midnight. The intervening time I spent giving birth to our son.


In the church, we tend to celebrate death days, not birth days (Christmas being the notable exception). Why? Well, partly because those days often mark martyrdoms and partly because no one knows on a saint's birthday that that date is going to be worth remembering 20, 30 or 80 years later. But mostly because the day of a saint's death is the day of the fulfilment of that saint's hope: he is finally to be found in the full presence of his Lord.

Still, it's customary in our culture to celebrate birthdays, and I think it's a fine tradition. (Ever since becoming a mother, though, I've felt a little self-conscious on my own birthday, realizing that I wasn't the one doing the real work so many years ago!) Birthdays are a chance to thank God for the gift of a loved one, to really pay attention to the people you live and work with, to really appreciate the people who make your ordinary life such a good ordinary life.

In my church, people with birthdays upcoming in the week get to take up the Eucharistic gifts during the offertory. The priest accepts the gifts from them, and then prays God's blessing on them for the following year. So, at least in my experience, birthdays are a part of the church year. There's also a whole church service, "A Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child," in the Book of Common prayer, to celebrate the adding of new members to a family.




I think viewing birthdays as part of the church year makes sense. We're supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that tells you, among other things, that you have to love specific people. In fact, the people right in front of you. And family, especially children, are people we have specific duties toward, especially the duty of loving them. Birthdays are a chance to remember God's grace, to pray for his future blessing, and to enjoy his current gifts.


so, my son, my beautiful one-year-old-tomorrow child: I thank God for you. May he always be your God and father, may you grow to love and obey him, and may he grant us the privilege of raising you to a healthy, happy adulthood in his grace, by his mercy, for the sake of his love. Amen.



peace of Christ to you,
Jessica