A Book Of Christians and Rythm

One of the things we live immersed in it´s hurriedness. We run and run from this place to this place, through the hours of the day, the days of the week, the week of the month. We don´t have rhythm, and the end of our life we will probably have everything we need or desired, but we will still craving for something. The liturgical year, the calendar that has marked the Christians for so many years through their traditional events, has the intention to allow us to have that rhythm, in our chase: to return to a rhythmic life. It´s “a journey of the soul through the map of Christian time.” This book, by Joan Chittister, is about it.


I couldn´t be more agreed with Phyllis Tickle when she says in the foreword that: “If there is any one thing that characterizes Western Christianity in our times, it most certainly is a kind of yearning- a kind of keening need, actually- to see and know and feel and touch again that from which we have come.” And that is the main reason why I read the book, plus: I´ve been looking to move from hurriedness to rhythm for months! The book is good, poetically written, chapters are shorts which allow you (at least in my case) an easy reading, highly informative regarding historical points in Christian tradition, and the reason we celebrate what we celebrate (most of which I didn´t know) and the author did a good job trying to explain that. But, it wasn´t what I expected. She repeats herself a lot (if you going to buy the book I recommend you to jump from reading the chapter one to chapter seven), returning to the same point again and again and that got me a little tired after some chapters. And, although she spent a lot of time explaining what is the liturgical year and its importance, I would like her to be more explanatory on every specific dates. Anyways, if you need to learn the reason why we celebrate what we celebrate, this is the book.

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I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."