The Liturgical Year

Having read several of the books in "The Ancient Practices Series" edited by Phyllis Tickle, I was excited to get my hands on this latest offering. "The Liturgical Year" focuses, as the title suggests, on the feasts and seasons that make up our liturgical year. Sr. Joan Chittister, a Benedictine, was an interesting choice for the author of this book in this particular series. Overall, this series has had a decidedly evangelical bent and sought to present the ancient practices from a variety of religious traditions. This offering is 100% Catholic which I am sure aggravated many readers of this series. As a Catholic myself, I was thrilled. Sr. Joan has a mixed reputation among Catholics. Many love her. Many hate her. Some of the books she has written have made my blood boil. Others have been very insightful. This falls into the latter category. It is a well-written introduction to the reasons for our liturgical year and the benefit found in following the seasons of joy and sorrow. Each year that we repeat the process finds us in a different place, with new insights and new wisdom and new challenges to be faced. The liturgical calendar invites us to once again experience Jesus' life and glean the lessons appropriate for us at that moment. "The liturgical year is an adventure in bringing the Christian life to fullness, the heart to alert, the soul to focus. It does not concern itself with the questions of how to make a living. It concerns itself with the questions of how to make a life." The main focus of the liturgical year is the Easter experience. Yet the liturgical year contains four major kinds of celebrations. The first celebration is Sunday, the weekly remembrance of the Resurrection. Second, we celebrate two major seasons - Advent, before Christmas, and Lent, before Easter. Third, the sanctorial cycle commemorates the holy lives of those that have come before. Lastly, Ordinary Time which lasts after Christmas until the start of Lent, and then again after the Easter season until Advent bears witness to the "ongoing presence of Christ in the human community today." Chittister explores each of these four celebrations, both from a historical and a spiritual perspective. She examines the importance of balancing joy and sorrow, fasting and celebration, as well as embracing the "normal" state of Ordinary Time. She also dedicates a chapter to the Marian feasts which celebrate the Mother of God. "The feasts of Mary in the liturgical year are a virtual catalog of the works of God in humanity in the Incarnation of the divine in our midst. She is, the ancient prayer reminds us all, 'blessed among women.' She is simply a woman like ourselves whose acceptance of the will of God changed the trajectory of humanity. The implications for the rest of us are awesome. The implications for women as women are particularly impacting." I can't imagine life without following the liturgical year. It is so much a part of who I am as a Catholic. As Chittister state

Chittister's work is written from her years of living life through the liturgical calendar. Her perspective is distinctly catholic, but presented in a manner that welcomes a protestant, like myself, to join in. She writes for the everyday person. After all, liturgy is "the work of the people," and The Liturgical Year aims to engage the everyday follower of Jesus to follow His everyday life. Chittister presents a summary view of the calendar, dedicating a few pages to each movement. Though the approach is broad, one cannot help but linger over the depth of experience in her words. Here is a glimpse into the life of one who has found an ever closer walk with Jesus through the disciple. Even the most non-liturgical reader cannot help but walk away with a desire to "taste and see" how the Lord might work through acts of remembrance. In a world that runs from one thing to the next, with little time for serious reflection, Chittister's work provides another way. The Liturgical Year is a call to probe the depths of God and not settle for quick, surface level answers. The offer is to find our ever changing life rooted in the unchanging example of Jesus' life.

How do you solve a problem like liturgy? How do you explain to someone in the modern world the value of living a liturgical life without sounding pious? Meet Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, Benedictine nun, international speaker, author of "The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life." and you answer both of those questions. Joan is well educated and everything but pious. She is humble and very transparent. She is able to answer those questions because she asked them herself and lived to talk about. Joan writes from the heart. I have to admit that once I started reading The Liturgical Year, my own inadequate knowledge of real liturgy hit me square between the eyes. That was shocking to me because Missouri Synod Lutherans ARE Liturgical. Even so,I realize that I am the perfect person to review this book. I'm not Catholic, I'm Lutheran. I'm part of a church plant and I prefer Praise and Worship to Liturgy. This book and the author's gentle and pursuasive argument for the spiritual adventures found within the full liturgical year, brought me back again and again to the same question: Am I missing something in my worship? Being a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, there are parts of her book that I do not understand or agree with. However, I'm giving this book 5 stars. Why? It made me hungry for more. This book resonates within my own spirit therefor, my husband and I are making the personal sacrifice of attending a High Liturgy LCMS Congregation for early service for one full Liturgical year, (we started the first weekend in Advent) so that we can learn more. My husband, the praise and worship leader at the mission start, wants to learn more as well. This extra worship service is on top of our regular church services across town. We will attend both churches for one full year. Let the adventure begin. I am a member of Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger program. If you would like more information about this program see [...]

This book, authored by a Benedictine nun, aims to provide a broad and passionate overview of the Christian liturgical calendar. Within the may variations of Christianity there is a common thread of events all Christians celebrate. This book provides the meaning behind all the special day in a simple, straightforward way. Definitions and origins of holidays such as Christmas and Easter are given along with their spiritual significance. Chittister successfully positions the liturgical calendar as a tool of spiritual discipline and exercise and not a mindless set of rites to be executed each year in some sort of empty religious duty. Being a Protestant/Evangelical for all of my life, one might expect that I shy away from a book written by a Roman Catholic on this topic. The author successfully presents the data, based on her Roman Catholic background, in a non-partisan way in order to benefit those from all Christian traditions. I found her points regarding the orientation of the new year rather intriguing (pg. 4). Rather than celebrating the "New Year" when the ball drops on 1 Jan, the Christian more appropriately might celebrate the "New Year" with the revealing of the advent wreath. There is nothing magical here except the transformation that might occur in the individual by focusing more heavenward rather than on their civic realm. It is, as she puts it, the "...eternally spiritual dynamic" (pg 211). Those interested in the true meaning of the liturgical year and yearning to find tools to develop a closer walk with Christ would do well by reading this book.

ancient practices: yes, please My newest review in the Thomas Nelson Blogger Book Review program is by a Benedictine nun, Joan Chittister. It is called The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life and it is from "The Ancient Practices Series" which encourages Christians to draw upon the It is not that I agree with Chittister at every detail, but that I strongly believe modern Christianity yearns for connection with the long tradition of faith and the freedom that is found in liturgy. Our church is fragmented and segregated by a pervasive pragmatism and hyperactive stimulus. We need the devotion and discipline Chittister outlines in this book. When we participate in the practices of the liturgical year, our hearts participate in the life of Christ. We are connected more deeply with all who have heard His voice throughout the ages. A wholehearted, yearly revisiting of this cycle renews us, increases our faith and brings us face to face with the love of Christ and can make us more like him. The framework of the liturgical year can actually bring us to the place in which we can meet Christ. Chittister gets this right. Exactly right. You will not find many specific ideas and methods, but that's not the point. If you're like me and were raised in a tradition that had little use for the richness of historical Christian faith, this book is for you. You need it, even if you don't think you do.