The Road, by N. C. Sherwood

A set of beautifully crafted liturgical services written by Naomi Claire originally published in 1934.

Sample or buy on Amazon
  • A few extracts:
    May the beauty of thy holiness flood our souls, washing away all that is sordid, so that in whatever work our hands shall find this day to do we may show forth something of thy creative power, to thy glory. Amen.
    God grant we be not of those who narrow the divine goodness down to the channels of their own pet orthodoxy.
    One of the biggest difficulties in worship, especially when it occupies so short a space of time as these services, arises out of wandering thoughts. We are often warned against them and advised to drive them sternly away. I would rather suggest that at the outset of worship, in the silence that precedes it, they should be given a definite, ungrudging place; that whatever is at the moment of going to worship the dominant interest of our conscious mind should be accepted, and that we should, as the first step towards worship, seek out the connection between that activity or thought and God. For God is concerned with our life; there is nothing we cannot link with Him by whom the very hairs of our head are numbered.
    For example: is the thought uppermost in my mind the joyful anticipation of meeting a friend? I can readily bring that to Him in whom all friendships are enriched, and go on my way knowing that our meeting will be enhanced by His participating Presence. Is it pleasurable satisfaction in some success, in some game well played? God is the Lord of all good life, and rejoices in the activity and well-being of His creatures. Or is it the sense of failure, burden, monotony, discouragement, shame? He is the lifter-up of our head; He can put a well of music in our soul; He offers us to share His yoke and plough through the day beside Him. In this way out of what might have been hindrances we build our daily altars of praise.