tish harrison warren liturgy of the ordinary

She challenges us to be content in all circumstances, even dirty dishes and unmade beds and lost keys. She worries that we’re addicted to novelty and stimulation rather than actively seeking solitude and silence, as Jesus did. She confronts and challenges our subconscious views, our desire to get rid of the boring stuff to live a thrilling, edgy kind of faith. She’s talking about our everyday liturgies … our habits and traditions: Examining our daily life through the lens of liturgy allows us to see who these habits are shaping us to be, and the ways we can live as people who have been loved and transformed by God. When Warren refers to liturgies, she isn’t just referring to the worship practices of traditional churches. They’d be the ordinary, and we’d all be longing for what we now disparagingly call ordinary). If we were all pastors of mega-churches or world-famous evangelists or sought-after preachers, those things wouldn’t be the extraordinary.

Ordinary is the opposite of extraordinary. This one where we aren’t living as we thought we might or as we hoped we would. Warren says: I’m living this life, the life right in front of me. That’s how we are to honour God, in the ordinary. My view is that the overarching theme is that most of us do live ordinary lives … and that’s okay. Ironic, given it’s structured around the activities of a typical day.ĭifferent people will probably read different things into the book (isn’t that one of the brilliant things about writing?). It’s a book to be read slowly and savoured, not devoured in a day. If I’m trying to read a book in the wrong season, it’s like trying to build a snowman in midsummer: I might be willing, but there is just nothing there to work with. I also find that nonfiction tends to speak to us in different seasons of life.

One is that I find I have to slow down for nonfiction-I can’t devour good nonfiction in a day the way I devour a great novel.

Liturgy of the Ordinary certainly did-it released in 2016, and mine is an advance reviewer copy … While I can (and often do) read a novel in a day, nonfiction takes me a lot longer. I’m changing track slightly today and reviewing a nonfiction book (gasp!).

Tish harrison warren liturgy of the ordinary