Make Jesus the Center of Your Family's Year
The time-honored traditions of the liturgical calendar guide Christians through a year-long meditation on the life of Christ. Beyond just Christmas and Easter, each season of the church year offers special opportunities to remember and celebrate the work of God.
In Sacred Seasons, Danielle Hitchen helps you incorporate the rhythms and rituals of this ancient Christian discipline into your everyday family life. Part theology, part church history, and part practical spirituality, Sacred Seasons provides an easy-to-use guide to observing the liturgical year complete with fun activities, delicious recipes, and meaningful liturgies.
Grow your family's faith in tangible ways as you experience the meaning and joy of each sacred season together.
"As late converts to liturgical rhythms, the Church Calendar confronted decades of being shaped by school calendars, sports seasons, and a few fun-but-frenzied holidays. Challenging at first, this new way of telling time offered a far more profound way to build the shared rhythms we need as humans. This book is a beautifully crafted sourcebook for shaping our traditions by the awareness that time has been redeemed by Christ. Happily, it's never too late to dig deeper with friends and family. My wife and I look forward to using Danielle Hitchen's gift to shape our coming days more richly than ever, after the greatest story of all."
--Bishop Steven A Breedlove, Diocese of Christ Our Hope, Anglican Church in North America
"If you are looking for a new rhythm for your own personal study, or if you need a fresh plan to help the Scriptures come alive for your children, this book is for you! In this friendly layout you will find nuggets on church history, practical ideas for your kids or grandkids, recipes to make together, and much more. It's a great gift for a young family!"
--Susan Alexander Yates, speaker and author of Risky Faith
"This is a beautiful, invigorating, one-of-a-kind book. In an age of praise songs and fog machines, retrieving the church calendar can feel like little more than nostalgic play-acting. Yet the liturgical rhythms have provided a firm anchor for Christian devotion throughout the centuries. Danielle Hitchen has provided a rich treasure to the church in this historically informed, immensely practical how-to guide that offers us baby steps back into spiritual disciplines and promises to root us more deeply in God's grace and communion with our fellow saints."
--Bradford Littlejohn, president of the Davenant Institute
"In Sacred Seasons, Danielle Hitchen equips us to place ourselves inside God's story by embracing the often-overlooked liturgical calendar. Wow! She has me totally convinced of its value for my family and my faith! She offers approachable, meaningful, and exciting ways for Christians to 'keep time with the Lord' so that God's story informs theirs. Every page captivated my attention, and I am looking forward to inviting these practices to captivate my calendar."
--Caroline Saunders, author of The Story of Water
"Sacred Seasons offers a biblical, historical, and practical roadmap for living out your faith every day of the year. This book isn't about adding more to your already busy life. Rather, it's about attuning our lives to what God has done and is doing throughout the history of the church. Whether you're familiar with following the church calendar or the concept is completely new, this book is an invaluable resource to help you and your family embody the grand and beautiful story of our redemption."
--Sarah J. Hauser, speaker and author of All Who Are Weary
"There is nobody I trust more than Danielle Hitchen to help lead my family through the rhythms of discipleship. In Sacred Seasons, you'll find a knowledgeable, humble, and encouraging conversation partner, fellow parent, and trustworthy friend. For the parent who has heard of the church calendar but has no clue where to begin, this is your new go-to resource. For the family who has dabbled in church calendar resources, this book will guide you deeper. With a grateful heart, I commend this book to your family and pray that God will use it to bind your heart to his."
--Chris Ammen, founder of Kaleidoscope Kids' Bibles
"More than any resource I know, Sacred Seasons makes following the Christian calendar approachable and enjoyable. This book is meticulously researched and theologically robust--it will be an enormous blessing to anyone who wants to enter more deeply into the rhythms of grace God has given his church."
--Matthew Lee Anderson, author and founder of Mere Orthodoxy
"Sacred Seasons stirs my longing to experience something bigger than the personal relationship with Christ I know so well. I have often looked for new ways to consistently connect my kids to God through the year--not for the sake of tradition, but so my whole family can grow a deeply rooted faith. As it turns out, the global, millennia-spanning church has the sacred seasonal practices I've been searching for. Danielle reminds us that it's never too late to tune our lives to the melody and rhythms of the church calendar. I'm delighted to discover I'm invited, too, and I'm grateful that she has written the comprehensive, practical guide this mom needed."
--Christie Thomas, author of Fruit Full
Danielle Hitchen is a writer and the founder of Catechesis Books, a publishing company dedicated to building out a collection of biblical and theological resources for babies, toddlers, and preschools. A graduate of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University, Danielle lives with her husband and three young children in northern Virginia. www.catechesisbooks.com
Harvest House Publishers
Pub Date: October 03, 2023
0.9" H x 9.1" L x 8.0" W
224 pages
hardcover