Sunday, August 26, 2018

Finding God in Ordinary Time by Christine Eberle

There is double meaning to the title of this book. Many devotionals are written for specific times in the liturgical year, like lent or advent. This one is for the ordinary time in the liturgical year. But it also refers to finding God in the ordinary – the ordinary events, the ordinary encounters, and the ordinary people in your life.

Saint Ignatius urged his followers to “find God in all things.” (xiii) That's what Eberle has done. She pays attention and prayerfully reflects on common experiences. I think my favorite devotion was the one on morning glory. I battle the encroaching plant too. Now I will forever think of the spiritual lesson of making room for the more worthy things. Pulling up morning glory becomes a lesson for all of life.

There were a few surprises in the book. Finding God in imperfection and even failure? Reading those devotions encouraged me to pay attention, to train my eyes to notice and my heart to listen, finding God in every situation.

Eberle provides a Scripture and has added questions to stimulate thought with each devotional writing. Devotions are about the natural world, people, another culture, and the difficult events of life. While the book was generally written for individual use, she has included additional questions at the end for group use. Eberle ministers within the Catholic branch of Christianity. This protestant learned much from her writing.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Christine Eberle has been involved in Catholic college campus ministry for twenty five years. She is a church cantor, public speaker, and performs dramatic monologues of biblical women. She is currently Director of Campus Ministry at Gwynedd Mercy University near Philadelphia. She is passionate about asking, “Where is God in all this?” You can find out more at https://christine-marie-eberle.com/.

Green Place Books, 176 pages. This book releases September 17, 2018.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. My comments are an independent and honest review.

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