Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

A dear friend loaned this book to me. Over the last couple of years, she and I have had several conversations about what it means or looks like to pray, what worship looks like in daily life, making time for quiet time with God amidst all the things. I struggle with the latter one especially, even on the best of days, and on the worst days, I can't seem to find God (or maybe space for God is the right phrase) even though I know He's there somewhere. My friend had recently picked up this book, read the first chapter and decided I needed to read it first. (She knows I read and return books, because I'm a good friend. Matt saw me reading this and also wanted to read it, but I'm going to give it back to my friend first because Matt is not a reader of books or a returner-er of borrowed books, and therefore is not a good friend. ;))

I guess the best way to describe this book was restful. It felt peaceful to read about all the things I also do on a given day (or at least some days - I don't lose my keys or fight with my spouse often), and thinking about those things through the lens of worship, especially on days when it's hard to pray. Plus, the breaks in each chapter offer different perspectives on the same actions/ideas, and I liked that a lot.

Chapters:
• Waking: baptism and learning to be beloved - remembering the renewal of baptism and greeting every morning as a new creation
• Making the bed: liturgy, ritual and what forms a life - being intentional in our routines, and how worshipful liturgy forms a guide in doing so
• Brushing teeth: standing, kneeling, bowing and living in a body - remembering that Jesus was a man, and had the same issues we do of having to care for himself; how these daily tasks of body care are not meaningless, and denigrating ourselves is to denigrate what God has created
• Losing keys: confession and the truth about ourselves - acknowledging our sin and allowing ourselves the knowledge of forgiveness even when our selves in these moments aren't pretty or good
• Eating leftovers: Word, sacrament and overlooked nourishment - daily bread, and similar to the brushing teeth chapter, that so much is just maintenance, but that doesn't make it unimportant
• Fighting with my husband: passing the peace and the everyday work of shalom - the action of “passing the peace”/greeting our neighbors at church, and what it looks like to have actual community and peace with those around you
• Checking email: blessing and sending - being content with the work put in front of you, whatever it is; the idea that no vocation is holier or better than another
• Sitting in traffic: liturgical time and an unhurried God - how rhythms of time make us feel like we have control over time, and how the annual liturgical calendar displays God's time
• Calling a friend: congregation and community - a personal relationship with God, and “being the church”
• Drinking tea: sanctuary and savoring - the small pleasures of life and the delight we get in them, and the delight of God in his creation
• Sleeping: Sabbath, rest and the work of God - we are not limitless, we have and need patterns of rest, and what we do in place of rest displays our values