I received "Cherished by the Lord: 100 Meditations," by Sister Kathryn James Hermes in today's mail. This book is beautiful, absolutely beautiful, both in its design,and in its contents.
The cover alone would attract me to this book if I saw it in a bookstore.
As for the interior: The pages are light purple, a quiet, relaxing color. There is a lovely nature scene at the bottom of each two-page spread.
And now, the contents. I've been paging through this book, pausing to read here and there.
Each chapter has a Biblical passage before the meditation. The meditations are concise, and clearly written. In some of them, Sister Kathryn James shares own experiences. I love that personal touch!
I've already found some chapters which I'll be reading again and again. Two of my favorites, so far, are Chapter 84, "Someone Is Waiting For Your Story," with its very contemporary references to Twitter, YouTube,and Facebook, and Chapter 91, "Sabbath Space." Here is a brief quote from that chapter. "For some of us, the harried pace of life has blurred Sunday into any other day of the week, except that people go to church.Why not establish some other Sunday ritual that expresses the joy of your relationship with God?"
Another thing I really appreciate is the fact that this book has a Liturgical Index, a Topical Index, and a Scriptural Index. This way, I can choose either a meditation appropriate for the season or feast, or one that fits my feelings at the moment, or one based on a particular passage in the Bible.
I plan to keep this book close at hand in order to dip into it, read it slowly, savor it.
