Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

by Tish Harrison Warren, Andy Crouch (Foreword)

In the overlooked moments and routines of our day, we can become aware of God's presence in surprising ways. How do we embrace the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred? Framed around one ordinary day, this book explores daily life through the lens of liturgy, small practices, and habits that form us. Each chapter looks at something?making the bed, brushing her teeth, losing her keys?that the author does every day. Drawing from the diversity of her life as a campus minister, Anglican priest, friend, wife, and mother, Tish Harrison Warren opens up a practical theology of the everyday. Each activity is related to a spiritual practice as well as an aspect of our Sunday worship. Come and discover the holiness of your every day.

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Faith, Theology, Religion, Christianity, Christian Living

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2016

About the author

Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. After eight years with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries at Vanderbilt and The University of Texas at Austin, she now serves as co-associate rector at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She writes regularly for The Well, CT Women (formerly her.meneutics), and Christianity Today. Her work has also appeared in Comment Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, Art House America, and elsewhere. She and her husband Jonathan have two young daughters.

Reviews

[Katelyn Beaty]

My formal endorsement:

If Christianity is to retain its witness in our frenetic and fragmented age, it must take root not only in the thoughts and emotions but also in the daily lives and even bodies of those who call Christ Lord. Tish Harrison Warren has beautifully 'enfleshed' the concepts and doctrines of our faith into quotidian moments, showing how every hour of each day can become an occasion of grace and renewal. If you want to know how faith matters amid messy kitchens, unfinished manuscripts, marital spats, and unmade beds, Liturgy of the Ordinary will train your eyes to see holy beauty all around.

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unusual and profound and UNUSUAL! I am gonna have to reread it after I internalize some of the messages I already got from here.
I really really really loved the approach to routines of our lives. Extremely reasonable. Way more reasonable than I've ever managed to think about it.

[Paula Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was just what I needed.

I love its emphasis on rhythms, routines, cycles, rituals, or whatever else we like to call those things we repeat over and over again. Our lives are full of daily, monthly, seasonal and annual repetition. Tish Harrison Warren sets out to explain how there's holiness and dignity in what we easily dismiss as mundane and tedious.

It's structured in the form of a random, typical day from her calendar, beginning with waking up and ending with going to sleep again. She presents fresh ways of thinking of all these moments, and I'll mention just a couple.

In the chapter on bed making, she describes how she used to begin each day checking emails and social media. (That looks very familiar, before my feet hit the floor.) Then she realised that she'd set herself up to expect stimulation and entertainment from the get-go. If you're like me, we're gently encouraged to welcome a bit of quiet sameness, and not to bolt away from mild boredom the moment we get a whiff of it.

There's a chapter on cleaning teeth and all those other mindless rituals which remind us that we're temples of the Holy Spirit. She delivers some good, straight talk here. Using our bodies for false worship is akin to using consecrated bread and wine in a Wiccan goddess ceremony. And denigrating our bodies by our mirrors is like running down a geographical sacred site. Yeah, sometimes we need of dose of this.

The 'Eating Leftovers' chapter leads to an interesting reflection that apart from occasional delicious feasts that wow our socks off, most of our home cooked meals are pretty basic, unremarkable fare, just like the grace of God appears to be. We've been conditioned in our modern era to want the spiritual intensity of meals cooked by celebrity chefs. People who attend church services and conferences are often longing for new truths, emotional experiences, signs and miracles. But life is just made up of good, nourishing food. If we are tempted to equate our scriptures with boring, dry old bread, well she advises us to just keep getting stuck into them anyway, because we'll develop a palate for the truth.

A chapter entitled 'Checking Emails' is about the attitude in which we approach our work. It's easy to be a Martha in our technology driven world, when work is always at hand. Or we can go to the opposite extreme and totally idolise the notion of complete escapism. Warren recommends something in the middle. We do our daily work from a relaxed, peaceful attitude of already being blessed, rather than a mad scramble to prove ourselves worthy. This will help combine the activity of Martha with the reflectiveness of Mary.

The other chapters are equally thought provoking. Losing the car keys, the pleasure of a cup of tea, getting stuck in traffic jams. It all brought home to me how much repetition we have to cope with, so we might as well make peace with it and consider all these routines to be sacred privileges, instead of grumbling about them and considering them to be annoyances. It's a book I'll be wanting to dip into more often just to remind myself.

Thanks to Net Galley and InterVarsity Press for my review copy.
For more thoughts, book talk and reviews, visit my blog, http://vincereview.blogspot.com.au/

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A profound reminder that we live our whole lives "coram deo." Our Creator is not absent or delinquent, but maintains His control over every molecule. I savored this book, reading one chapter each day as well as pondering the discussion questions and suggestions for application. My daily life is forever changed. Thank you Tish Harrison Warren, for helping me to reorient my days around the rhythms of worship and reminding me that my whole life should be worship. Highly recommended!

If you love this book, I also recommend the latest title from Tish Harrison Warren: Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep.

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on the place of liturgy and its meaning in our everyday lives.

[ladydusk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Own.

There were valuable ideas to be mined in this book. Things like dealing with our digital world rightly, ordering our physical devotional life, thinking about routine and habit. I really enjoyed the first 5 chapters.

Warren lost me, to some extent, in her chapter about food. I started to find nuances in her thinking that were overly burdensome, in my opinion. Being thoughtful about details is good, but not everyone can think about canned food or the sources of food in this way. Not everyone can afford a chair built by their neighbor. She decries me-centered evangelicalism but doesn't see how being overly introspective about her day to day and choices is a part of that.

I found the writing to be a little less tight as she went on, I felt like I was reading the same ideas and sentences re-written. My favorite passages in the book were the quotes she pulled from other sources.

The final chapter, on rest and sabbath, was about a topic that I think is important and could use more highlighting, so I was glad it was included.

I can see why it has been a popular book, I found some of the ideas helpful, but it isn't one I'd recommend everyone read.

[Matthew Manchester · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a reason this book was awarded Christianity Today's "2018 Book of the Year Winner - Spiritual Formation" AND "2018 Book of the Year Winner - Beautiful Orthodoxy".

It's because it's that good.

SUMMARY

I want to talk about two things regarding this book:

1. This is a book that shows how our ordinary, daily activities (brushing teeth, sleeping, etc) are God-ordained ways to worship Him. The author will structure this by exploring the relationship between (a normal Anglican) liturgy and daily chores & tasks. This was wonderful as it made me think of both things differently.

2. It's a spiritual formation book. IMO, we don't talk enough about spiritual formation in Reformed Christianity. We tend to focus more on knowledge and maybe the spiritual disciplines. But we don't think deeply enough about how all this high theology works itself out in boring life. This book is a gift in that (and all) respect.

THE GOOD

This book was deeply convicting. My wife overheard the audiobook for three minutes and was convicted. It's going to work its way into the crevices of your heart. Warren's writing is fluid, honest, and a delight to read.

It's also deeply theological and historical. Warren isn't coming with new ideas or ideas from some random mystic monk from the 11th century. She's focused on a typical (Reformed) church liturgy and unpacking it. I also really enjoyed the many, many questions and recommendations to cultivate spiritual formation that were found in the back of the book (and yes, these are on the audiobook too).

Audiobook note: The narrator, Sarah Zimmerman, is on fire in this book. She is such a good narrator. Major props once again to ChristianAudio for hiring a quality voice for such a high-quality book.

THE CHALLENGES

Honestly, when I first heard of and saw this book, I thought it would be a mix of Eat, Pray, Love and egalitarian mysticism (I guess that book cover triggered me or something). Obviously, it's not those things at all and I had very few issues with the book. I'll mention two small ones.

1. Some might question her words on baptism. After reading the book, I'm pretty sure the author doesn't believe in open baptism, but her words might infer it.

2. I wish there was a conclusion. The ending was too abrupt for my taste. I need that summary, especially the older I get.

CONCLUSION

Regarding this book, I recently told a friend:

I have to say, with [insert Christian Twitter mess of the day], this book is crazy good. Like, if this is egalitarianism (the author is a priest) vs our current #toxiccomplementarianism men, I’d take being egalitarianism.

I’m not, but this book really showcases what the church is missing by not listening to women.

It’s incredibly frustrating.

This book is worth the read. Especially men: buy this book, but please see the fraud reselling notice the author & publisher put out. Let the Holy Spirit show you how all of life is designed by God, for God.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to look at how our daily rhythms and routines can inform our faith and worship. Easy read without much Scriptural support for the author’s ideas, but several chapters still provided me with interesting takeaways, especially for the stage of life I’m in as a mother of a young child. Ch. 2 establishing Biblical routines and rituals, ch. 4 on learning how to confess and repent in the day-to-day frustrations or interruptions, ch. 10 on learning to appreciate beauty in small things, and ch. 11 on rest and keeping the Sabbath all left me with ideas to ponder. She also presents an interesting perspective on the liturgical calendar in ch. 8 which I had not encountered before being from a family and now a church that do not use the liturgical calendar.

On the flip side, some chapters meandered - the book reads very poetically, but also like the author’s personal musings or meditations. There’s some buzzword bingo going on - e.g., injustice, social justice, racism, modern-day prophet, shalom, and community - all make a number of appearances. Chapter 5 is HIGHLY based on the author’s personal preferences, and she seems unaware that her own social and economic status may not be the practical or financial norm for everyone and that she might be placing a Christian responsibility on her readers to do something (buy local, eat organic, etc.) that they may neither be able to do nor are they Biblically required to do. Finally, the author clearly loves the tradition and history of liturgical worship but is an ordained and actively practicing Anglican priestess, which is not exactly historic or traditional - this was a good reminder to keep my eyes open to the author’s theology which isn’t always consistent with the creeds and beliefs of early reformers and historic confessions.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: Walking through the common events of an ordinary day from waking to sleeping, Warren explores how we encounter in these ordinary things the Christ we worship each Sunday.

I work with people in a university context who struggle to connect the Christ they worship each week with the seemingly ordinary, and often repetitive tasks that make up their days--answering emails, running experiments, attending committee meetings, preparing lectures, holding office hours, and grading papers or exams. In many cases, this occupies the most significant part of their waking hours. And for the ones who are followers of Christ, they often wonder what any of this has to do with the Christ they worship, and are attempting to follow. Time spent in a soup kitchen, a prison ministry, a mission trip--that seems closer to the real deal. Some wonder if they should even be doing the stuff that makes up most of their weeks.

There are others who think even the life I've described sounds "cutting edge" compared to spending much of their days feeding, cleaning up after, diapering, entertaining, putting down for naps and getting up again infants and toddlers. Or they work in some form of unskilled or repetitive work. And no matter what our work is, much of life involves a daily round of self-care, home care, and meal preparation, and a host of routine activities--every day.

Let's face it. Much of life is lived in the ordinary and it is to this that Tish Harrison Warren addresses herself. Her book takes the tasks of the "ordinary" day and reflects on how we are met by and may be transformed by the Christ we worship each Sunday. She explores activities like waking, making our beds, brushing our teeth, losing keys, eating leftovers, fighting with our spouses, checking email, getting stuck in traffic, talking to friends, drinking tea, and sleeping. She connects these with the liturgies she participates in each week as an Anglican priest. She writes:

"And every new day, this is the turn my heart must make: I’m living this life, the life right in front of me. This one where marriages struggle. This one where we aren’t living as we thought we might or as we hoped we would. This one where we are weary, where we want to make a difference but aren’t sure where to start, where we have to get dinner on the table or the kids’ teeth brushed, where we have back pain and boring weeks, where our lives look small, where we doubt, where we wrestle with meaninglessness, where we worry about those we love, where we struggle to meet our neighbors and love those closest to us, where we grieve, where we wait.

And on this particular day, Jesus knows me and declares me his own. On this day he is redeeming the world, advancing his kingdom, calling us to repent and grow, teaching his church to worship, drawing near to us, and making a people all his own.

If I am to spend my whole life being transformed by the good news of Jesus, I must learn how grand, sweeping truths—doctrine, theology, ecclesiology, Christology—rub against the texture of an average day. How I spend this ordinary day in Christ is how I will spend my Christian life. "

She connects waking and baptism, as Lutherans often are taught to do in making the sign of the cross and saying, "remember your baptism" upon waking. Making beds reminds of the rituals that form a life. Brushing teeth represents all the embodied tasks that make up our day, and how we meet Christ through the bodily acts of standing, kneeling, and bowing. I particularly loved the chapter on sending email, and the blessing and sending that is part of our worship, and that may be implicit in our responses to our inboxes. She makes drinking a cup of tea a reminder of the enjoyment of all that is good in the sanctuary of God.

She concludes the book with a chapter on sleep, reflecting on the gift of sabbath and our struggle with lives of activism, and a resistance of sleep that may reflect a fear of dying. She poses an interesting question:

"What if Christians were known as a countercultural community of the well-rested--people who embrace our limits with zest and even joy? As believers we can relish sleep as not only necessary but as an embodied response to the truth of Scripture: we are finite, weak creatures who are abundantly cared for by our strong and loving Creator."

Warren writes with an unvarnished realism about her own life, and yet there is also this sense of stepping back from the whirl of ordinary life in the various moments of the day to remember, and listen, and reflect on how Jesus as the Incarnate One brings his shalom into the whirl of the ordinary--whether it is a fight with a spouse, lost keys or a traffic jam. Warren's thoughtful reflections help us move to that same place, a kind of center of quiet where the new creation life of Christ can enter into the ordinary spaces of our days.

This is a book I can give to those wondering if there are greener pastures of Christian activity than the everyday circumstances they find themselves in. It is a book that makes the connection between the extraordinary things we preach and pray and participate in each Sunday, and the ordinary realities of each week. From when we first wake until we lay down our heads at night. And all the spaces between.

_______________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher . I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

[Jacob London · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is some fortune cookie wisdom found in the pages of this book. For example; make your bed each morning as a reminder to consecrate the day in prayer in worship, having a tea and time to relax each day is important for our spiritual vitality, sleep is a gift from God, etc,. I am thankful for these reminders but there were some glaring errors in this book.

First, any book that is going to address the spirituality of our day-to-day life is going to have the tendency to elevate the common to the same level as the special. The author constantly crosses the line of putting secular activities in the realm of the sacred. Watching T.V., losing the car keys, naps, etc, are all supposed to be these profoundly spiritual experiences that lead us to seeing our life as a divine liturgy. I would suggest that these moments are something we will all experience in our lives and we should seek to do all things to the glory and under the Lordship of Christ. My concern here is that this book seeks to elevate the common realm of live to the same spiritual significance of the worship service, Bible reading, and prayer.

Second, Harrison Warren in speaking about liturgy refers to all liturgies as equal and all leading us to an encounter with God (I might not put it that way but I can work with it). To illustrate this point she refers to different "denominations" such as the Presbyterians and the Quakers and their liturgies as equally valid and divine... It seems that the research here may not have been fleshed out considering that the Presbyterians condemned the quakers as heretics in the earliest Puritan movements. In fact, I don't know of any Orthodox Christian denomination that would call the Quakers Christians. Their unBiblical stance on almost everything proves them to be outside of the faith. So why would we say that their liturgy (which is nonexistent) is just as appropriate as the liturgy given in the Westminster Standards? It's not.

Which leads me to my third point, I can't nail down what the author believes concerning salvation. At some points she uses language that seems to be leaning towards with N.T. Wright would hold to in the New Perspective on Paul, and in other places it just sounds like universalism. Either way, once again these doctrines have also been widely condemned by orthodox Christians. I would like her to clarify her understand of salvation.

In conclusion I would not recommend this book. There are some nuggets of wisdom in these pages, but it's not worth read. It may cause more harm then good.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the ways I have errored in my Christian walk is at times being more drawn to the extravagant, experiential, ‘highs’ of the Christian life as a way to measure ‘progress’. Yet, the majority of life is the routine, the mundane, the small, the ordinary, the habits cultivated over time.
Warren does a fantastic job of helping readers gain a new perspective on those seemingly mundane everyday moments to show how God is present in and could redeem your ordinary actions.
Highly recommend this refreshing read that doesn’t ‘stay in the clouds’ with heady theology but really emphasizes the application of Scripture to normal life.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tish Harrison Warren takes a close look at the liturgy as it stands in traditional Christian churches and then highlights elements of our ordinary lives that serve as daily sacred liturgy.

Doesn't that sound fabulous? It is.

All you will have to do is look at the table of contents and you will want to read this marvelous book.

1. Waking: Baptism and Learning to Be Beloved
2. Making the Bed: Liturgy, Ritual, and What Forms a Life
3. Brushing Teeth: Standing, Kneeling, Bowing, and Living in a Body
4. Losing Keys: Confession and the Truth about Ourselves
5. Eating Leftovers: Word, Sacrament, and Overlooked Nourishment
6. Fighting with My Husband: Passing the Peace and the Everyday Work of Shalom
7. Checking Email: Blessing and Sending
8. Sitting in Traffic: Liturgical Time and an Unhurried God
9. Calling a Friend: Congregation and Community
10. Drinking Tea: Sanctuary and Savoring
11. Sleeping: Sabbath, Rest, and the Work of God

[Lacy Monahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I have struggled through mundane, ordinary days wondering if I was being faithful, questioning myself and frustrated with my lack of productivity. This book challenged and reoriented my thinking of those ordinary days. The mundane shapes us imperceptibly yet in extraordinary ways. Some chapters hit home harder than others, but all of them leaned in hard to see God in repetitive tasks and daily routines.. things like sitting in traffic, checking email, calling a friend, eating leftovers, and brushing your teeth.

The only qualm I had (not enough to not give it 5 stars) is that I did not agree with some of the Anglican flavor from the author. However, it wasn’t consuming and did not change the integrity of the book. Christians of all faith backgrounds can be united!

I was incredibly helped by this book. I will read it again. And yes, I will recommend it to any believer.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I work in a non-denominational church that’s part of a movement that is famously anti-liturgy. We take communion every week and that’s about it. Our services are very laid back and informal. So it’s good for me to read books by Anglicans and Presbyterians and get a feel for the other side of the coin. Christian liturgical practices have been an important part of the church since the beginning, and it can be a blind spot for me.

Warren is a great writer and a great Bible teacher. I’ve read a lot of her stuff, but this is the first book of hers that I’ve read. She spends time explaining the liturgy in her local church, but then shows how those same practices can be woven into our everyday lives.

The interesting part is that when we engage in these everyday “out of the church” practices, she shows how it brings us closer to the local body of Christ, not further away.

[Bambi Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borrowed this from the library. I knew I would have big theological differences with the author, but still thought I would enjoy it more than I did.

This book asks what our daily work and the mundane parts of life have to do with the worship of God. In my opinion this has been answered better and in a style/tone I prefer, by other authors and teachers.

[Cara Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not get enough of this book. My inner Anglican appreciates her belief system made real through her words - but my favorite were the little nuggets of goodness found in various phrases. Such a fan.

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. The author gives you lot of ordinary things to think about with a spiritual context. The book is well written with cute, witty humor and leaves you with a new perspective on your everyday experiences.

[Nikki Slonaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be one of the most formations books I’ve read in awhile. Warren goes throughout a normal day and each chapter is a deep dive into a deeper theology or practice (I.e. brushing your teeth = the theology of our bodies). So well written with practical applications and digestible truth that I know I’ll be chewing on for awhile!!

“You can’t get to the revolution without learning to do the dishes. The kind of spiritual life and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailyness of the Christian faith…that God’s transformation takes root and grows.” p. 36

[Hannah Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone. Such a good read and so easy to comprehend and understand.

[Andrei Rad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some years ago I was impressed by the idea that in the Christian life there is no difference between the sacred and the profane. Christians are not dualists in this sense. The dualist cosmology is part of the Manichean religion. Likewise, the distinction between profane and sacred rituals, actions and professions, is pagan, not Christian. However, it seems to me many Christians actually believe in this stubborn (heresy?) distinction between the holy time (e.g. the time you spend in a church building) and the secular time (e.g. where you are at home, at work, at the sports field, etc.), the sacred and special calling (e.g. being a missionary, a priest or a pastor) and the general secular calling of an ordinary profession.

In this book, “Liturgy of the ordinary”, Tish starts from the correct premise that there is no part of our lives that is untouched by and disconnected from the sacred work of worship and prayer. As the author noticed, even the incarnate God spent his days quitely, a man who went to work, got sleepy, and lived a pedestrian life among average people. There is no task too small or too routine to reflect God’s glory and worth. To me it seems in the same tone with Brother Lowrance’s book, the author of “The practice of the presence of God”, but with more insights into the modern world of technology.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives”, writes Tish emphatically. Only when we are practicing the unceasing prayer (meditation) on the word of God, we start to observe the unexplored potentialities for the sacred in our ordinary lives. Tish presents 11 meditations on some of our ordinary habits, like sleeping, waking, morning rituals, brushing teeth, buying and eating food, passing the peace to people, working, checking mails, calling a friend, drinking tea, losing things, sitting in traffic etc. These, along with others, are called “daily liturgies” and they may describe a lot more about ourselves then our prepositional doctrines. For example, the author sees emerging everyday from sleep as an opportunity to remind ourselves about our baptism and about our identity of beloved sons as our daily garment which is offered to us in Christ.

I liked where the author is coming from. It criticises the consumer-driven “market for religious experience in our world” and, instead, it encourages the acquisition of virtue and holiness by loving our Creator through our daily habits. The book is full of quotes from the church fathers, Luther, C.S.Lewis and some contemporary authors. There are some references to pop culture songs, did not bother me. I was impressed by the combination of sincerity and kindness the author communicates. The book is easy to read (part of it was read on the bus: Zalău-Cluj), but not because the ideas are trivial. Rather, very profound ideas are approached joyfully - a little too joyfully for my preferences. I think the book, inevitably, lacks a little bit of rigurisity. The practical part is perfect, but the argumentation seems like a collage of well-chosen citations with no obvious correlation. She emphasizes the precognitive because “most of what shapes our life and culture is not doctrinal, but “below the mind” - in our gut”. I partly agree. All in all, I enjoyed reading the book, although the style of it is not really part of my liturgy :))

[Crosby Cobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite read yet! Tish’s writing always slows me down, always makes me think more deeply, and always reminds me to open my eyes to the beauty, goodness, and truth around me. I have too many favorite excerpts to share but know that if you haven’t read this book you probably really should!!!!!! I think it will bless you!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always looking for books I can recommend to my friends who do not read too much. As much as I enjoy diving into a work by someone like David Bentley Hart or Alasdair MacIntyre, I know my normal Christian friends couldn't care less. But this book by Tish Harrison Warren, I think any and every Christian I know could devour it. It is about, as the title says, everyday life. It is not a book of "radical" faith that purports to teach you how to save the world, gives you an emotional high and then a week after you finish you look at it with guilt realizing your life is the same. Instead, Warren walks through a normal day and how actions and practices shape us. She discusses things as simple as answering email, arguing with her husband and going to sleep.

Its a fantastic book. She has clearly learned a lot from James KA Smith as echoes of his Discipling the Kingdom and You Are What You Love come through clearly here. I love his works, so perhaps it is no surprise I loved this one. Its great. If you're a person of faith it will deepen your spiritual life by helping you see how normal life is spiritual. So definitely check this one out.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. As one who was raised in a non-traditional evangelical subculture, I found myself deeply in want of steadiness, simplicity, sacred rituals of meeting God in the ordinary and in the life of the church. While reading I realized how the consumer mentality has plagued our contemporary worship, how our spiritual diet often consists of feelings and church entertainment and how allergic are we to liturgy.
I knew very little about the common liturgical practices of the Anglican church, but apart from getting some insight, I also got a sense of respect and yearning for this kind of depth and routine in community worship.
The author's view of living every moment and doing every duty with regard to God's presence and work in the world is inspiring.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tish Harrison Warren's book profoundly explores the significance of everyday rhythms, routines, cycles, and rituals. The author demonstrates how these seemingly mundane practices hold a sense of holiness and dignity. Warren's work encourages readers to embrace and cherish these routines as sacred privileges rather than mere annoyances. Her insights into the repetitive nature of life offer a refreshing and optimistic perspective on daily rituals. Each chapter of the book offers thought-provoking and insightful observations, leaving readers eager to refer back to it time and time again. This uplifting and optimistic perspective on life's daily rituals is genuinely enlightening, and I am grateful for its positive impact on my outlook.

Although some of the mentioned information is commonly known among readers of this genre, I found the material enjoyable. Four stars! ✨

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read to start out the new year; especially a year that, for me, will be marked by humbling domesticity and ordinary moments.

[Alissa Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt like a warm hug. It is a powerful and important reorientation to our identity in Christ and place in this world. It helped heal a part of me that was so used to the big, splashy spiritual moments. There is holiness, sanctification, devotion, and love in the ordinary

[Ana Paula Nunes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obs: livro ouvido em audiobook

[Micah Dorsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Warren takes certain things a bit far (ie the Eucharist) but, on the whole, gives some great insights to the Christian who feels that their monotony isn’t God glorifying. Much needed redemption of life in the trenches!

[Lauren Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful & practical exploration of everyday holy moments- I want to lend my copy to everyone I know!

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is basically an explanation of sacramental/incarnational theology and Luther's doctrine of vocation for the average lay Christian. I don't agree with everything she says, of course, but my only real complaint is that I wish she would have emphasized the sacraments as providing Christ for the forgiveness of sins (rather than only as spiritual food). Otherwise, it offers really beautiful reminders of Christianity in everyday life. I loved her emphasis on faith in community and the value of liturgy, be it physical objects and actions in church on Sundays or the church calendar.

Warren references the work of James K. A. Smith: see Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation