Thursday, January 19, 2017

Organizing our reading for this winter and spring!

I was just super thrilled with the response to yesterday's post about Live Today Well. We have a nice little group reading along together, and it warms my heart to see how this blog community has grown.

🤗

So today we're going to pick one of the options I laid out yesterday, and get ourselves organized! I'm a librarian, organization REALLY makes me happy. *beams*

If you go back and look at the comments, the consensus is clearly option (b), which is:

(b) We read 1 chapter per week of Live Today Well. We start next week, go all the way through winter Ordinary Time, and continue on into Lent and Easter. We will finish during the last week of April, about 2 weeks into the Easter season. Then we start To The Field of Stars. This timeline works out well for Fr. Roderick's pilgrimage (and he'll be podcasting the whole journey), as he's planning to embark during the Easter season.

This is the option I was leaning towards as well. Each chapter is about 10-12 pages. For a book we're looking to take our time with and really glean lots of useful information out of, I think that's an ideal pace. As well, when I'm reading non-fiction, I like to also have a fiction book going at the same time to balance things out, and this frees me up to still do that. Importantly, this is a perfect book for winter Ordinary Time AND Lent. I really think it's an ideal fit. By just after Divine Mercy Sunday, we'll be done and glowing!

So here is our schedule:

Chapter 1 "The Devout Life" - January 25th (Conversion of St. Paul!)
Chapter 2 "St. Francis's Spiritual Directory" - February 1st
Chapter 3 "On Rising: Starting Your Day Right" - February 8th
Chapter 4 "On the Day's Preparation: Looking to Be Holy" - February 15th
Chapter 5 "On the Direction of Intention: The Key to Spiritual Perfection" - February 22nd (Chair of St. Peter)
Chapter 6 "On Meals: Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary" - March 1st (Ash Wednesday!)
Chapter 7 "On Work: and Taking Spiritual Repose" - March 8th
Chapter 8 "On Leisure: Interacting with Others" - March 15th
Chapter 9 "The Examen: Reviewing Our Daily Progress" - March 2nd
Chapter 10 "On Retiring: Practicing Detachment" - March 29th
Chapter 11 "Prayer: Communing with the Divine" - April 5th
Chapter 12 "Living the 'Little Virtues'" - April 12th (Wednesday of Holy Week)
Chapter 13 "Confession and the Grace of Reconciliation - April 19th (Easter Wednesday)
Chapter 14 "Mass and the Grace of Encounter" - April 26th
Conclusion and Wrap up "The Universal Call to Holiness" - May 3rd (feast of Sts. Philip and James)

Now, these dates are not fully set in stone. I am planning to do the posts on Wednesday, but if a day really gets out of hand, the post may be Thursday or Friday that week. I'll always let you know if things are looking that way! This is a guide for the weeks generally, with the goal of finishing the chapter and chatting about it on Wednesday. I'm really excited! And how appropriate that the Interacting with Others chapter falls during Lent. 🤣

There's still time to get the book and join in! Ready, Set...let's get reading!

*virtual high five!*

4 comments:

  1. The chapter on meals falling on Ash Wednesday seems timely. Either there will be good information about fasting or it will make me hungry. Hoping it is the former.

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    1. right?! I had a good giggle over that one. :0

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  2. I want in! You know I have the book already!

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