The full title of this book is The Liturgical Year- The spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life by Joan Chittister, and it’s part of Thomas Nelson’s The Ancient Practices Series.

I’m not sure how much of a review this is really going to be. I ordered this book from Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program (the theory behind that name is that good books are contagious) because I mistakenly thought this book was something other than what it was.

I grew up in a non-denominational church with very definite charismatic tendencies. My pastor grew up Amish, and his kids and nieces and nephews were all allowed to wear shorts and t-shirts on Sunday morning, even though my parents wouldn’t let me.

So, unlike most other kids that grew up in church, I never learned most of the old hymns, I never understood that whole sit, stand, sit, stand, reading out loud from a hymnal thing in response to what the pastor read out (though I got some of that at my grandma’s church), and never knew what incense was for. The closest I’ve ever been to a mass was a Philipino church in Paris (yes, France) that mixed a whole lot of different denominations into one, and that was confusing as heck.

But, I’ve always had a secret desire to be a nun, and I’ve always been interested in how other people worship as well as other religions. So when I saw The Liturgical Year, I snapped it up.

What I expected was a detailed account of how the liturgical year is celebrated. I mean, each and every day that something happens no matter how big or small, every single element of how to celebrate each celebratory day, and the why of each element. Like, why does the priest wear a particular vestment on a certain day, and what’s the significance of that particular color. Are there special prayers that are recited? Are there particular rituals for a particular day, and if so, what is the ritual, and what is the significance of each part of the ritual?

The chapter on Lent starts out “To understand Lent and its characteristic forty-day fast in its fullness would require a process of wandering back and forth between its historical evolution in the church and its gradually developing sense of purpose, whatever the nature or place or pace of its evolution.”

Well, yes. That’s what I wanted this book for- to learn the history of Lent and why and how it’s celebrated.

What I got, instead, was musings on each day. A meandering 5 or 6 pages in each section that essentially boil down to “Fill-in-the-blank is a time to think about blah-blah-blah”. I know it sounds a bit rude to put it that way, but that’s how the entire book read to me. Or rather, the first 50 pages, after which I skimmed through to about midway through the book, looking for something worth reading. Having not found anything, I flipped through to the end, and decided that it was time to just write this up and put myself out of my misery.

In conclusion, if you’re already quite familiar with the nuts and bolts of the Liturgical Year and just want a fresh way to think about it, or are interested in a nun’s take (Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun) on it, then you’ll probably enjoy this book. Or, at least, you won’t hate it. But if you actually want to learn about the liturgical year, then give this book a miss and keep looking. A quick search on Amazon for “about the liturgy” netted me several potential winners.

Note- I received this book at no charge in exchange for a review from Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program.