The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister

The Liturgical Year, by Joan Chittister, is the seventh book in an eight-part series referred to as The Ancient Practices Series.  The author, Joan Chittister, is a Benedictine Sister, has authored 35 books, and has won seven Catholic Press Association Awards. 

I was really hoping that by reading this book I would get a better understanding of the liturgical year.  As a child I grew up in a church which followed a liturgical service, but it was never really explained to me why we were doing what we did.  Now as an adult, I am still in a church that follows the liturgical calendar, and I want to know more about it, not only for me, but to teach my daughter. 

This book reeled me in at first.  It explained how the liturgical year is an adventure in bringing the Christian life to fullness and that it reminds us as the church what kinds of community we are meant to be.  It's not about just celebrating Christmas on one day and Easter on another, it's a process of growing our spiritual life and immersing ourselves into the life of Jesus.

It talks in detail about the season of Advent leading up to Christmas, and the season of Lent and the Holy week leading up to Easter, as well as the time in between.  To be honest though, I got a little lost toward the middle of the book.  I'm not sure if it was because the book was a little long to me (33 chapters) or possibly because it gave too much detail.  Maybe I was looking for something a little more simplistic, I'm not sure, but the second half of the book seemed to drag on a bit. 

Find Out More:  I did enjoy most of this book and learned many new things about the liturgical year.  If you would like to find out more about this book, you can purchase it at Thomas Nelson or Amazon. 

Disclosure: This product was given to Our Homeschool Reviews for free for review purposes by Book Sneeze, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I have received no compensation from it and all opinions and experiences within this review are my own.