sapphicpenguin's Reviews (109)

Not as staggering/life-changing as Holy Envy to me, but I think that's because I'm already so on the same page. What a beautiful book that aims to bless all parts of my life. 12 chapters, with 12 aspects of life to be faithful to, to seek out, to notice. You just have to wake up.

Solid mantras to inspire meditation/journaling/repetition. Connected with most of them, and a couple are now very important to me. 

There were five or six passages/exercises that I did like but also sometimes felt like I was reading a very basic anecdote from a sermon. Not necessarily bad, just nothing groundbreaking for me personally.

I didn't connect very much to the art, but admittedly that was not a practice I put a ton of energy toward. 

I did think as a whole it suffered from the common malady of attempting to be inclusive of non-Christians while still being unavoidably Christian such that it watered down some things and wandered into more self-help territory (accidentally, so it wasn't grounded in that, either). I would have appreciated either more solidly Christian ideas or more general. But perhaps there are people who will enjoy that in-between-ness.

This collection of anecdotes/people is exactly what it means to be (faultily, annoyingly, beautifully, liturgically, grace-full-y) Lutheran. 

A beautiful meditation on the Rhythmica oratio usually attributed to Bernard of Clairveaux, but probably written by Arnulf of Leuven. So much addressed in a relatively short book. Each part/wound of Christ's body is considered in its literal and metaphorical associations, with Bible passages, historical writings, and artworks considered. Sets out to unite us with each part of Christ so that our wounds are participations in love and inseparable from his Passion.

Very carefully and beautifully written. Contained an outline of the liturgical preparation for Lent, an introduction to Lenten worship (and the necessity of its differences), a chapter on the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (and pre-communion fasting), an overview of the liturgical Lenten journey, and a guide to bringing Lent into our daily lives. The appendix addresses secularism, the need for weekly communion, and concepts of "unworthiness" when approaching the Eucharist.

Definitely changed my attitude toward many things--I especially loved his thoughts on the relationship between the Eucharist and fasting. Would recommend to anyone (especially those who have only received a Western theology of fasting).

Historically important for dyke poets but I actually couldn't stand the narrator (who I'm aware is just the author so. Sorry Eileen.) Reads like an oral history—reading it out loud helped me process it. Every so often there'll be a line/passage that blows me away but it's surrounded by run-on sentences of lying around and smoking. The childhood bits were my favorite. It's all painfully honest and I can't fault that.

I had such high hopes for this beautiful book. It could definitely function as a coffee table/art book, or (as I'm going to do) a collage resource. The first half is kinda fun and has lots of angel/demon names and types, so this could also be a good resource for worldbuilding etc. But this does not fix the juvenile writing and grammar mistakes or the eventual devolving into ancient alien-type conspiracy theories and long passages about Jungian patients and "multiple personality disorder." This does not have a bibliography and multiple times prints unsourced as fact what everything else I could find labels "fringe theory." And then there's the one paragraph that's very strange about Jewish people. Do not recommend unless you're a strictly pictures person.