Joan Chittister’s “The Liturgical Year”

I picked up a copy of Joan Chittister’s new book “The Liturgical Year” the other day at Powells. ((affiliate links connected to powell’s online bookstore)) Chittister, a long-time nun, writes in this book a theological and practical explanation of the liturgical calendar. I’m pretty excited about this book, as I’ve already talked about my interest and use of the lectionary, I think this will give me a better grip on how we can understand all of life as falling within the patterns and stories of the Scriptures. From the back of the book it says:

“There are years to mark every stage of life, from childhood to old age. And in the center of them all, unchanged for centuries is the liturgical calendar. Beginning at Advent and rolling through the following November, the churches liturgical year represents nothing less than the life of Jesus Christ – he whose life and attitudes Christians strives to emulate. It proposes, year after year, to immerse us repeatedly into the sense and substance of the Christian life, until, eventually, we become what we say we are: followers of Jesus all the way to the heart of God.”

And the Chittister quote that was the clincher for me is:

“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.”

I look forward to digging further into this book and discovering ways in which I might take on this practice.