'Here is the absolute truth about love, told with wisdom, heart and humour. So clever, funny and life-affirming' Meg Mason 'Funny and heartbreaking, immersive and thoroughly satisfying' Nina Stibbe There are already three of us in this marriage. I'm not sure there is room for a fourth . . . Ann is a reluctant Vicar's wife. She tries her best but her husband only has eyes for God, her son is asking questions she struggles to answer, and it is all too easy to displease the congregation. It may only be a matter of time before she makes the headlines of the local gazette: Vicar's wife gets giggles in church. Vicar's wife refuses to bake scones. Vicar's wife does not care about other people. When her brother needs her help, Ann travels from Cornwall up to London. There she meets Jamie, and a new world unexpectedly opens up. Ann knows what the older women of the parish would say - she's made her bed and now she has to lie in it. But once she has been led into temptation, it may prove impossible to resist . . . The funny and heartbreaking new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink, Ordinary Time is an unforgettable story of the joys and sorrows of everyday life; one that asks big questions about friendship and marriage, forgiveness and redemption, and the real meaning of love. 'Once I started reading I couldn't stop. Cathy Rentzenbrink is so astute and observant about the small dramas, disappointments and compromises of marriage, and the deadening effects of duty . . . incredibly moving' Clare Chambers 'A very special book . . . She makes the everyday profound like Anne Tyler does. Melancholy interiority meets great capacity for joy. A beautiful, beautiful book about love in all its forms' Marian Keyes

In Ordinary Time, Sarah M. Wells embarks on a soul-stirring journey through the pages of life’s liturgical calendar, weaving a tapestry of essays that transcend the ordinary and illuminate the extraordinary moments within. From massaman curry to miscarriages, cancer diagnoses to crickets, Wells invites readers into her world, navigating the complexities of life, love, and the unexpected moments that shape us. With a blend of introspection, humor, lyricism, and keen observation, Ordinary Time inspires readers to find the sacred in the seemingly mundane intricacies of their own lives.

So many amazing things just below the surface of perception. So many adventures to be had in ordinary time.

Volume 3 of a 3 part series. "These contemporary song settings may be freely used in worship by Christians of all denominations, but those who use the three-year lectionaries will welcome the liturgical indexes that relate them to these lectionaries." Ogden is the Director of Music at Clifton Cathedral and Regional Director for the South West and Midlands of the Royal School of Church Music. Alan Smith is Secretary to the Composers' Group of the Society of St. Gregory.

The title of this book, Very Short Reflections--for Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Ordinary Time and Saints--through the Liturgical Year, accurately describes its contents. Chapter 1 presents a short reflection for every day of the Advent Season. Chapter 2 does the same for every day of the Christmas season. Lent is covered in chapter 3, the Sacred Paschal Triduum in chapter 4, and the fifty days of the Easter season in chapter 5. Chapter 6 covers Ordinary Time. And chapter 7 presents a short reflection for every solemnity, feast, and memorial of saints, whose special day falls during the liturgical year. The short reflections are based on sets of Mass texts--Entrance Antiphon, Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, Preface, Communion Antiphon, Prayer after Communion, and Prayer over the People--presented for every day of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Ordinary Time and saints in The Roman Missal. The reflection identifies the theme of the day and presents how it is manifested in the Mass texts. These very short reflections are designed to expose to the reader the liturgical spirituality that emanates from the Mass texts.

We often go to church on Sunday, then lose touch with God's word amid the craziness of our weekly routine. This series helps the entire family stay in touch with the word proclaimed in liturgy. For every Sunday and holy day of the year, each book offers three sets of prayerful reflections that parallel the lectionary: one for adults, one for teens, and one for small children. A thematic index is included for easy reference. These books are ideal for liturgy planning, and they're perfect for helping the entire family stay focused on prayer--all week long. In Touch with the Word: Cycle B for Ordinary Time is for the year 2009 and every third year thereafter.

Liturgy is the golden chore; the ineffable becomes as practical as a calendar or a loaf of bread. The Son of God becomes the Son of Man and briefly walks among us, Love itself incarnate in the life of faith. This generous collection--in both senses of spirit and breadth--uses the liturgical year to explore the many aspects of Christian belief. In a wide variety of voices, styles, and forms, Ordinary Time (the title is deeply ironic) includes themes from the most intimate examinations of conscience to some of the knottiest theological/philosophical questions. In tones ranging from comic/satiric to meditative to ecstatic--in characters as diverse as several apostles, three different Christmas shepherds, Mother Theresa, a retired Navy cook, and a lapsed Catholic celebrity on a TV talk show--these poems cover an extraordinary breadth of faith experience, without diminishing the struggles of faith. Like Mother Theresa in "Darkness," absence and doubt have their place: they move Incarnate grace deep enough even to meet suffering and death. The ritual year that winds from nativity to death to resurrection includes each member of the body of Christ. This collection provides one pilgrim experience in memorable detail.

Accessible background and insights on each scripture text in the three-year Sunday lectionary cycle. An invaluable resource for preachers, lectors, liturgical musicians, catechists and more.

Neomi Jean Hattisburg is a young Negro woman who comes of age during the 1930s. Her father, a railroad porter, and her mother, a domestic worker, instill in her a strong sense of faith and respect, however, she finds herself confused because of her appearance, (she looks White), and the way she is treated by Whites and Negroes as a result. When she falls in love with Moses Jackson, a young man she never noticed when they attended kindergarten through high school together, his focused plans to attend college and become an attorney to work for civil rights helps her gain clarity of her own. They make plans together to further their education and eventually marry. Their plans are interrupted by the outbreak of WWII and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Moses feels compelled to enlist in the Army Air Corps. As he goes through training with the 332nd Airborne unit, Neomi continues to save toward their dreams, working as a domestic worker in the home of a wealthy White family. One evening, while working late, Neomi is raped by the son of her employers. Overwhelmed by shame and unwarranted guilt, the discovery several weeks later that she is pregnant makes her decide that, in order to avoid bringing shame on Moses and her family, she must leave, and start a new life elsewhere. Knowing that it will be difficult to provide for herself and her child with employment available to Negroes, she decides to pass for White, and makes her way to Chicago, Illinois to start her new life. There, she obtains a job on the sales floor in a major department store and sets about living a White life, telling everyone her husband was lost in the war to explain her pregnancy. Over the next few years she works her way up to department head, and works hard to forget Moses. It is there that the son & heir to the department store chain discovers and takes an interest in her. They begin dating and eventually marry. The marriage is successful in that they truly love each other. Neomi finds herself living a lifestyle she could only have imagined, even though she must come to terms with her guilt over living a privileged life while her own people struggle for equality. The first child they have together looks just like her husband, and it only solidifies their marriage. However, when their second child is born, he is obviously a Negro, and Neomis false world falls to pieces. It is the journey Neomi must travel, the trials and tribulations her choices bring her to, and the faith that gets her through it all, that combine to make Ordinary Times: Extraordinary Measures a must read.

Reproducible images for the Sundays, feasts and seasons of the church's year.