For several years now I’ve been wanting to try observing
Lent. I didn’t grow up in a church
that observed any of the liturgical year (except Christmas, Good Friday and
Easter), and I was curious. But I
didn’t want to jump into a long period of fasting without understanding why
people give up something before Easter. I received a copy of The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister from the publisher in order to review it. In reading it I hoped to understand Lent, and also to see what the rest of the liturgical year was about.
Most importantly, after reading this book, and specifically
the chapter on Asceticism, I felt ready to observe Lent. Because of that I got the main thing I
wanted to out of this book. There
was also an excellent chapter on joy, and Chittister’s writing style was very
poetic. However, I would have
loved to learn more about each feast itself. I felt that the reader needed to already have a somewhat working
knowledge of the liturgical year to understand this book. I would have liked to have learned how
the feasts are observed. The
beginning chapters were a bit long as well. Less telling us what we’re going to read about and more meat
in the book itself would have been nice.
All in all, The Liturgical Year was a helpful and beautiful
read.
