Michaelmas in Two Seasons
by Gloria Connell
Seminary Student Gloria Connell, from Chile, writes about experiencing Michaelmas in the spring in the southern hemisphere, and in autumn in the north.
This year I was able to experience Michaelmas in the northern hemisphere for the first time, a hemisphere different from mine.
Until last year, my soul experience and my visual perception at the time of Michaelmas had always been accompanied by the arrival of spring in my country, seeing how the colors of light green, and soft pink appear everywhere in nature, how the meadows dress in multiple colors, the trees with their flowers accompanied by the sweet scent of them, the birds sing with more strength ... a new cycle of life is announced everywhere. And the altar is dressed in the same colors. My soul experience before the altar in South America was of being in the presence of a purified and strengthened force. A whole journey has already passed in the year accompanied by the different Christian seasons: Passiontide, Easter, Ascension, etc., have already passed; then we arrived at the Festival of John the Baptist. Afterwards, we had the third Trinitarian liturgical time (in Latin America, it is known as the Way of the Human Being or the Way of Discipleship), and then we entered into the Michael season.
This year, during my stay in Toronto as a Seminary student, I had the opportunity to experience Michaelmas in autumn. Nature was dressed in deep red, orange, shades of yellow (from gold to light yellows), and various shades of green. Red expresses the image of Christ's sacrifice, and green — the image of the New Gardener of life. These are the same colors that are with me in my country at Easter time. Whereas, here in Toronto, the altar is dressed in the colors that accompany me during the spring season in my country: light pink and light green.
This year during Michaelmas Tide, I was able to contemplate the colors pink and light green in the chasuble: the forces of Michael are revealed on the altar, and nature is dressed in the colors of Easter with the forces of the Risen One. Thanks to this event in my life (being now in the Seminary) I had the grace to experience in my interior two seasons at the same time, which in the Christian calendar are opposite to one another, and that is something that blossomed within me.
The red color of the Easter season has been transformed in me. The strength of the Resurrection of Christ that I received at Easter has been worked through and transformed into the strength of new life that comes to me from Michael as the countenance of Christ.
Our Author:
Gloria Connell hails from Santiago, Chile. She is the mother of four sons and has studied for two years in the South American Pro-Seminary. She is studying this fall in the North American Seminary.