From Pastor Biar’s Pen 

The Importance of Ritual

            Most people observe rituals in some way, shape, or form, and this is the time of year when they mostly come out. Families have their own Christmas and New Year’s traditions that they carry over, whether it’s getting to open one special present early on Christmas Eve before you go to church, making pigs in a blanket and watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy to welcome in the new year, perhaps a certain board game that the whole family joins in to play, and so on. Rituals provide a rhythm to life, marking that something momentous has happened – whether it’s a recurring anniversary as in holiday observances or an individual instance as we might see in a rite of passage. Rituals foster and join communities together as the participants are shown they belong by being included in whatever the activity may be. They shape you into a culture as you pass down great-grandma’s muffin recipe or join in with all of your cousins in singing about the sinking of the Titanic.[1]

            The Church is obviously full of rituals. The Church calendar organizes our worship focus and helps direct our own spiritual meditations. The liturgy itself is one ritual designed to strengthen and prepare us through life by repetition in order to engrain certain prayers and hymns into our muscle memory that we may carry them through our lifetimes. The community is bolstered through the regular observance of the Sacrament of the Altar that gathers us all as a congregation around the Lord’s Table where we receive His gifts of His Body and Blood to shape us into His Church. So, let us pause to reflect upon the ritual of the Church’s life while we are looking back on the last year and looking forward to the next, and remember that the liturgy isn’t just mindless repetition, but serves a purpose. Let us go into 2026 looking to be fashioned ever more into God’s people through the rites and rituals He has given to His Church.

God’s Blessings, Pastor Biar 

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