BookMarks

According to Sr. Joan Chittister the liturgical calendar “implants within each of us individually the reprise of those moments that are the substance of the faith.” If we don’t attend to the liturgical calendar, the secular/civil one will dominate. If we’re receptive, this calendar will lead us to acknowledge a full-orbed faith linked to two poles, Christmas and Easter, both of which are necessary to our understanding of the Christian faith. On Christmas morning we find the manger full of life; on Easter morning we find the tomb empty of death. We know the whole truth now: death is not the end, and life as we know it is only the beginning of life. Ordinary Time is the ongoing reminder that life is full of the habitual and the common, and that these come under the purview of God’s grace and presence. The Liturgical Year is part of the Ancient Practices Series on aspects of the spiritual life edited by Phyllis Tickle.

On Our Way is another book in the Christian Practices series edited by Dorothy Bass. Aimed at young adults, it covers a range of twelve practices: study, discerning God’s call, living as com munity, friendship and intimacy, making a good living, care for creation, hon oring the body, singing our lives to God, knowing and loving our neighbors of other faiths, peacemaking and non violence, doing justice, and living in the presence of God. The subjects are organized around five topics: living a whole life, attentively, together, in the real world, for the good of all, in response to God. Each chapter is written by a different author.