The Liturgical Year is a collection of devotional thoughts centered around the annual liturgy followed by the church throughout millennia. It is an attempt to draw believers back to the year that begins at Advent rather than the first of January.

While I found some of the historical work on the origin of the various festivals interesting, this book was just too aimless to engage me. On the small scale, I found myself rereading paragraphs and pages because I couldn’t remember or figure out just what she was trying to say. On a larger scale, even the table of contents lacked structure! I expected more internal logic from a book based around dates on a calendar.

That said, Chittister’s style of writing is beautiful at times. She brings a poetic flair to her prose that makes for great call-out boxes in the text. In the end, though, lack of substance overwhelmed the beauty of her style.

Of all the Thomas Nelson books I’ve reviewed, this was the one I anticipated the most and appreciated the least.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program.

Chittister, Joan. The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life. Thomas Nelson, 2009. The Ancient Practices Series.