NOTE: In the spirit of full disclosure, you, my fine reader, need to know that the publisher provided me with a free copy of this book. This in no way affects my review but I’m supposed to tell you that. And now I have.

I have long had an interest in “high church” liturgy. I am fascinated by the idea of the participation of the people in the work of Christ and particularly, the idea of the structure itself of what we do pointing to Christ. So it was with great interest that I picked up Joan Chittister’s entry into the Ancient Practices series, The Liturgical Year.

Chittister, a Benedictine nun claims that she is not writing a “Roman Catholic” book, but that is exactly what she does, consistently arguing, not just for the keeping of the Liturgical Year as a form of worship, but also working Roman Catholic theology throughout. For example, in her list of liturgical event, Mary gets sixteen mentions which is more than Jesus!

This book serves more as an apologetic for the Liturgical Year than it does a practical guide. Chittister spends much of her time arguing why we should practice this and less time telling us how. She seems not content with simply explaining the liturgical cycle, but also wants you to be convinced of her reasoning behind the practice. I am not.

I would much rather have seen a book on this topic from a Protestant perspective, especially in a series which claims to return believers to the “Ancient Practices,” which, from my reading of Scripture, do not include such veneration of Mary.

Yet, I must say that in her section on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter, Chittister includes a wonderful section on the role of suffering in the Christian life. She reminds us of the hard truth:

Suffering, we learn as we go, is the price we pay to bring life to fullness, both for others and for ourselves. It is not to be desired in a neurotic kind of way, but it is definitely not to be denied. For when we refuse to suffer, we refuse to grow…The problem is that we resist suffering with might and main. There is a natural inertia built into the human condition that seeks the comfortable, the familiar, and the secure. We want to shape life to our specifications and fix it there. We want stability…To live for the lesser things of like is to risk not really living at all.

Overall, I wish the rest of the book left the Roman Catholicism out and focused on the Liturgical Year, after all, that is its title.