Calendar of the Sun
30 Weodmonath
Charistheria
Color: White
Element: Water
Altar: Upon a white cloth set two white candles, a chalice of milk, white bread, and a dish
shaped like open hands.
Offering: Work for a charity.
Daily Meal: Except for what is shared in ritual, fasting today until Hesperis.
Charistheria Invocation
We open our hands to others
And we do not judge their deserving,
For none of us, hard though we try,
Are always deserving ourselves.
To seek the path of grace
Begins with graciousness.
To learn the dance of graciousness
Requires learning grace
In the giving and the taking.
Holy Charis, embodiment of grace
And graciousness, you whose hands
Are always open to all,
Help us to step beyond our feelings
Of who is deserving, who is worthy,
Who commands our compassion,
Who is pitiable, who is loved.
Help us to step beyond our emotions
Of who should receive your gifts, and ours,
Yet do not ever let us cease feeling,
For your gifts are not given out of cold duty
But out of universal love.
We open our hands to others
And we do not judge their deserving,
For none of us, hard though we try,
Are always deserving ourselves.
(One who has been chosen to do the work of the ritual, and who should be dressed in white,
brings the bread and milk to each person, and says, "You take, but you do not now give, for this
is charity." Each person replies, "Now I take, but later I give, for charity is grace," and partakes
of the bread and milk. Any remaining is poured out as a libation.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]