Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time

"The most precious thing a human being has to give is time," so says a woman quoted by author Dorothy C. Bass in this book about the meaning of a day and the potential in each day. It is a book not only of ideas but also of suggestions for Christian practice in order to truly live each and every day. The book holds chapters with inviting subjects such as, "Learning to Count Our Days" and "Living in the Story This Year." I was particularly taken by the chapter on Sabbath keeping with its emphasis on worship and rest. Both of these are human needs and all too often people assume they can do just fine without one or the other or both. You have heard people say they can worship God wherever they please and so have I, but there is something remarkably powerful about worshiping God in God's house, hearing God's word and sharing in God's music. Also we have heard people say, "I don't need more than a few hours of sleep a night," but all people everywhere have a deep need for rest from our labors (or our frenetic enjoyments). As Bass says, when we keep a Sabbath holy we are practicing for a day the freedom God intends for all people." (Page 63) In the chapter on "Learning to Count Our Days", we are reminded of the finiteness of earthly lives and the importance of remembering. As Bass says, "Whenever death comes near, I am prompted to ponder my own death and thus my life." (Page 116) When we live in tune with creation and contribute toward the well being of others, we can make the highest, the best use of each day. Also, Bass talks eloquently about the gift of hospitality and the full measure of time that is given when one truly welcomes another. Those who have pondered the "better part" that Mary chose, of sitting at Jesus feet, will appreciate this section of the book. Dorothy C. Bass is an historian of American religion and the director of the Valparaiso University's program called "Practicing our Faith". She has acquired a strong following of readers who are eager to explore the Christian journey in her company. I encourage you to become one of them.

Without a doubt, this little book is one of the most helpful spiritual books of the new century. Bass takes a careful look at how we view and use time. Her citations of other authors, especially poets, are well chosen and lyric. This is a book to savor, to stimulate meditation, and to return to. May I suggest it as the perfect Christmas present for someone who is not too superficial to appreciate it?

Bass doesn't preach at us from on high, but rather bears witness to her own struggles to keep sabbath and receive time as a blessing and gift instead of as a problem or enemy. Bass describes how "receiving the day" can become a way-of-life practice, and she relates this activity to other core practices that give life character and integrity (see "Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People," which Bass edited.) Bass grounds her analysis of time in contemporary research from a social scientific perspective, such as A.R. Hochschild's "The Time Bind" and R. Levine's "A Geography of Time." Bass's deeper grounding, however, is in the practical wisdom of the Jewish and Christian traditions for living faithfully in the rhythms of days, weeks, and years. Drawing on the biblical story of the creation of time (Genesis 1), Bass invites us to consider what difference it would make in our lives if we viewed dusk instead of dawn as the beginning of each new day. Observing how digital clocks now synchronize our global economy, Bass notes with irony how Benedictine monks invented the clock to call the community to prayer at set hours during the course of the day. The challenge for us today is not to "turn back the clock," of course, but to learn how to live freely and humanly within a 24x7 society. I enthusiastically recommend "Receiving the Day" to anyone who cares to ponder how we dwell together as creatures within time. This book prompted deep personal reflection about the ways I spend my time, and it also inspired the design of a playful worship service for our congregation's annual Family Camp. A great book for adult study groups and sermon ideas. To open "Receiving the Day" is to open a thoughtfully chosen, carefully crafted gift.

This beautiful book can change the way you view each day. Are you in a struggle with time or can you learn to embrace it? How is your life shaped by the Christian year and its seasons? How do you practice the sabbath? Bass answers these and many other questions central to our faith. She does so by sharing her personal experiences and those of her fellow believers. This deeply spiritual book is sure to change the way you view your life, your creator and the world we share.

As a mother with a full-time job outside the home, I too often view time as a problem, an enemy to do battle with every day in order to get my work done and care for my family. Dorothy Bass's book has been a revelation to me--she shows me that I can inhabit time differently, more graciously. There is so much practical wisdom in this book. I have been particularly helped by thinking about my days, weeks, months and years not as made up of blocks on the calendar, but as part of the rhythms of work and rest, feast days and ordinary days. I've been trying to follow some of Bass's suggestions for giving shape to each week, by observing a sabbath day of rest. I am finding out two things: that by preparing for a sabbath day I am more productive on my work days and that on the day of rest, time seems to open up, get larger somehow. Bass draws on the best wisdom religious traditions (Christianity primarily, but also Judaism) have to offer about how to give shape to our days and offers it to the reader in a form and a language that resonates with busy, contemporary people. I am so grateful for this book.