All Your Questions Answered
All Your Questions Answered
You've had some questions. I hope this answers them all, but if not just send me an email and ask. Please? You can reach me at hello@sacredordinarydays.com. You might also want to check out this Facebook Live where I covered some FAQs and previewed some of our new collection.
When are the 2020 Liturgical Year A daily planners available for pre-order?
October 1st! (That's tomorrow. YAY!)
Go ahead and put Tuesday, October 1st at 9am CDT in your current planner or in your phone's calendar to remind you to order yours :) This year we’re offering four cover options for the first time, so you might want to order yours now to make sure you get your favorite.
When will they ship?
Monday, November 18th or earlier, along with anything else placed in the same order as a planner. We’ll ship each order out in one box.
It's gonna be a good mail day. You can add that date in your current planner or in your phone's calendar to remind you to start watching your email for your shipping confirmation and your mailbox for a package, too. I mean, you'll already have it open from scheduling yourself to order tomorrow, anyway... ;)
What's new about the 2020 Liturgical Year planner?
The new Sacred Ordinary Days 2020 Liturgical Year A planner features our beloved book-bound style in four different cover options. Choose from a velvety printed cover in Deep Sea Blue or Open Meadow Green, or a book cloth and gold foil cover in Earl Grey and our NEW Red.
The planner is 7.75” x 8.75” x 1.25” with pages that are 7.5” x 8.5". The velvety scratch-proof printed cover and book cloth cover have both withstood all our tests for normal wear and tear. The 500+ page daily planner is 2.5 lbs.
What are those cover options again?
We’ve heard from many of you who couldn’t choose which cover material was their favorite - our velvety printed covers or our book cloth with gold foil. We feel the same way! So this year, we’re giving you the best of both worlds, with four different cover options. Our printed cover will be available in Deep Sea Blue and Open Meadow Green, while our book cloth cover will come in Earl Grey or our NEW soon-to-be-named red.
Today is the last day to vote for your favorite color name so head on over to Facebook or Instagram to weigh in.
Is the planner book bound or spiral bound?
Our daily planners are book bound because we value offering a planner that…
- easily goes from desk to bag and back again (without snagging on your clothes or wrinkling the other paper in your bag by catching on the coil binding)
- is really durable so that pages don’t fall out or accidentally get ripped out, and the binding doesn’t loosen up over time (this is what engineer-brain Grant calls “structural integrity”)
- gives users the pleasing experience of cracking open a beloved, well-used book
- has a ribbon bookmark to hold your place on your daily page and either your weekly or monthly page
- prominently displays the year on the spine, so that when you set it on your bookshelf for reference you can see exactly which planner is which
- is a delight to run your hands over and hold while you pray or plan or pick it up, so it feels as good physically as it does spiritually/mentally
Will the pages lay flat?
The 500+ page Sacred Ordinary Days daily planner is specially bound in a manner that allows the most flexibility for a book-style binding while maintaining beautiful aesthetics and durability. The planner will open and stay open, but a crisp brand new planner may need a little encouragement with a second heavy book placed on top overnight. The pages are intentionally designed so there is a large margin of white space in the fold to avoid writing near the fold.
What do the pages look like? I'd like to test them out before buying.
Not only can you see the images of the planner pages right on the new products when they’re live tomorrow, but you can also download the October sample PDF to try it out and not only see but use the pages, too.
Will the planner have daily Bible readings or weekly Bible readings?
The 2020 Liturgical Year A daily planner has both weekly and daily readings.
Weekly scripture readings come from the lectionary, based on a three-year cycle used in corporate worship across the world and throughout centuries that guides churches through the Christian Scriptures. Many versions of the lectionary exist, and our planner draws from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), a widely used ecumenical resource used by many churches and denominations. The weekly lectionary rhythm (usually) includes four texts: one each from the Old Testament, the Psalms, an epistle, and the Gospels. Some feast days carry their own lectionary passages, and these are noted in the planner on the appropriate days.
Daily scripture readings come from the Daily Office Lectionary, a two-year cycle of texts for personal devotional reading from the Book of Common Prayer. Year One begins at Advent preceding odd number years. Year Two begins at Advent preceding even-numbered years. So, we begin with Year Two readings this Advent. Most days include five readings, a morning and evening Psalm, an Old Testament, an Epistle, and a Gospel reading. The Daily Office readings are to be a helpful tool, not a strict rule. Feel free to read more or less, and in whatever order or time works best for your situation.
What types of Sacred Ordinary Days planners are there?
We currently make two versions of the SOD daily planner: the liturgical year edition and the academic year edition. The content of each of the Sacred Ordinary Days planner editions for a year is exactly the same. The only difference is the starting and ending date.
Our liturgical year editions follow the dates of the liturgical calendar. This new planner begins with Advent on Dec. 1, 2019, and runs through Nov. 28, 2020, the end of the Season After Pentecost, the 2nd of two seasons of Ordinary Time. This edition corresponds with Year A for the Revised Common Lectionary and Year 2 for the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer.
Our academic year editions follow the dates of the typical school year. They are 12-month planners running from August through July.
These daily planners feature 8 pages per week, including 1 page for each day and an additional weekly planning page with a weekly reflect and reset practice based on the prayer of examen.
We will offer a PDF of the Liturgical Year A | 2020 daily planner. The PDF is intended for all those who need to carry a month or two at a time, prefer to bind in a different method, want to use the planner on a digital device or who live in a location where the cost of shipping is prohibitive. Purchasing, printing and binding the PDF will most likely end up costing more than buying the printed and bound planner. The bound version will always be the most useful of the two.
In the past, we’ve also offered weekly editions of the planner, but this year we’re completely focused on bringing you the best possible daily version of the planner. We have tons of ideas for additional versions (we know you do, too!) and we hope to get to those at some point. Stay tuned for more on that in the future.
Who is this planner for?
We made this planner for you if...
- you know nothing about the liturgical calendar or the lectionary, but you'd really like to read scripture and pray alongside Christians throughout history and throughout the world, to be drawn into a tradition much larger than yourself.
- you're vaguely familiar and you know the lectionary and the liturgical calendar has something to do with scripture and Jesus's life, but you want a thoughtful approach to learning and using it.
- you use these tools and texts weekly (or even daily) for your own practices already. Perhaps you teach and preach and maybe you're even raising your kids with them.
What is Sacred Ordinary Days all about?
Sacred Ordinary Days is the culmination of years of learning, listening, teaching, and walking alongside people who were hungry for peace, presence, and purpose. Our work is focused on helping people prayerfully discern and faithfully do the work that they were uniquely called and created to do, while also making time and space for rest and play. It's based on our belief that the church is most fully the church when every person is most fully him- or herself. Our heart is to help people do their own work effectively, joyfully, and sustainably - no matter what that "work" is - and to serve as companions along the journey.
We’re ecumenical, meaning we’re not just for or about any one denomination. Our heart is to serve the church as a whole, helping share the wealth and breadth of tools and resources that have been used by many Christians of various denominations within the larger body of Christ. We draw from the Catholic Ignatian tradition (which gave the church the prayer of Examen), the Daily Office (which comes from the Anglican tradition), the Revised Common Lectionary (which is used widely throughout mainline and evangelical Protestant denominations), and Common Prayer: a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (which is a more recent contribution to the global church). We also quote from a diverse array of Judeo-Christian thinkers both modern and ancient.
We are undergirded by the rhythm of the liturgical calendar (which is about being anchored to the life of Christ and the life of the Church), the value of both scripture and practice in intentional spiritual formation, a contemplative approach to the Christian life, and the posture of spiritual direction.
Can I try a sample before I buy the whole thing?
Sure can. Today and tomorrow, you can download and try October right here for free. After tomorrow, you can still download the monthly sample at the regular price of $4. If you decide to order a full planner, you can apply that $4 to the price of your planner when you order.
Are there filled out examples sheets that could help guide me?
Jenn's going to share some of her planner pages on Instagram stories this week, plus shoot a few videos to send by email, and would love to share examples from other folks. If you'd be willing to share photos or videos of how you use your planner, reply and let us know! We'd love to feature you in our newsletter and on Instagram and Facebook.
I want several, can I get a discount?
Yep! We'd love to help you share your love for our planners with friends, family, and colleagues. We offer group discounts on most of our products. See the bottom of each product description for group discount codes.
How much will they cost?
The Deep Ocean Blue and Open Meadow Green printed covers will be $57 while Earl Gray and NEW Red book cloth covers will be $60. For the month of October, we’ll offer a $5-off pre-order discount, so you can get them for $52 and $55, respectively.
We get it. These planners are an investment. It isn't like making a split-second decision to grab a $15 option off the shelf without thinking on your Target run. (That's the point, though, right? That's clearly not working for you, if you're still looking.)
We didn't make the planner expensive just for the sake of creating a high-end product. Instead, the price has more to do with the realities of the book production world. We want our planner to be as financially accessible as possible, while still being well-produced and high-quality. If the pages are too thin, the binding falls apart, or it looks grungy one month in - you'll stop using it, you know?
We totally understand that it's not cheap. The price-tag comes down to a few good reasons.
- This is not your normal Target planner like we said. We do not use thin paper, plastic binding, or a flimsy cover. Instead, these feature high-quality paper, beautiful and sturdy binding, a ribbon bookmark, and gold foil stamped on our book cloth covers.
- There are over 500 pages. That's way more than the usual. We could easily pack 365 days into 365 pages, but that will not help you deepen your journey of faith. The goal of our liturgical planner is to weave your growing faith into every day of your life with multiple practices and resources. The "planner" part of this planner is just a small part of the content.
- Our liturgical planner is more than just a planner with lines and dates, it has a number of rich resources that tie the liturgical year, the lectionary, the practice of praying the Examen, and the practice of crafting a rule of life into your everyday life.