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Souvenirs of the Holy: Encountering God Through Everyday Objects
Connect with God, memories, and your deepest self through the simple stuff of life. In this indelible work of spiritual formation, Episcopal priest and author Laurie M. Brock invites readers to contemplate ordinary things. How might the sacred astonish us by showing up in everyday items?
Rocks. Cast iron skillets. Portraits. Calendars. Shoes. The regular objects of our lives can be conduits of God's love and grace--if we notice them. What if, instead of ignoring the things we use every day, we let them testify? What might our things say?
In Souvenirs of the Holy, Brock helps us see everyday items not merely as objects gathering dust but as keepsakes from the literal and spiritual journeys we have taken. With pastoral presence, humor, and poetic grace, she helps us tap into the unseen realms underneath the things we take for a coin from our father holding complex yearnings for love, the scar on our arm speaking of survival, the quilt on the bed holding scraps we've inherited, the garden shears reminding us that pruning brings forth new life.
Join Brock on a journey of spiritual direction through everyday things, and discover the sacred in the ordinary. Reflect on the items in your life that connect you to a God who dwells within and beyond the material world. With creative ideas for praying with objects, this book is ideal for book clubs, church circles, and small groups seeking deeper, more tangible spiritual experiences.
Holy things can be found outside of church buildings. What objects in your own life speak of usefulness? Of survival? Of guidance and redemption? Deepen your sense of God's enduring love through this spiritual field guide to all things sacred.
Rocks. Cast iron skillets. Portraits. Calendars. Shoes. The regular objects of our lives can be conduits of God's love and grace--if we notice them. What if, instead of ignoring the things we use every day, we let them testify? What might our things say?
In Souvenirs of the Holy, Brock helps us see everyday items not merely as objects gathering dust but as keepsakes from the literal and spiritual journeys we have taken. With pastoral presence, humor, and poetic grace, she helps us tap into the unseen realms underneath the things we take for a coin from our father holding complex yearnings for love, the scar on our arm speaking of survival, the quilt on the bed holding scraps we've inherited, the garden shears reminding us that pruning brings forth new life.
Join Brock on a journey of spiritual direction through everyday things, and discover the sacred in the ordinary. Reflect on the items in your life that connect you to a God who dwells within and beyond the material world. With creative ideas for praying with objects, this book is ideal for book clubs, church circles, and small groups seeking deeper, more tangible spiritual experiences.
Holy things can be found outside of church buildings. What objects in your own life speak of usefulness? Of survival? Of guidance and redemption? Deepen your sense of God's enduring love through this spiritual field guide to all things sacred.
- GenresReligion
198 pages, Hardcover
Published October 21, 2025
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Laurie M. Brock
6 books14 followersWriter, priest, horse-lover, Southern woman. Fan of faith, humor, grace, and good wine.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 20, 2025
You can feel Laurie M. Brock's pastoral presence throughout "Souvenirs of the Holy," a literary journey through which Brock, an Episcopal priest, guides us toward connecting with God, memories, and our deepest selves through the simple "stuff" of our lives.
In a world where it seems either mass accumulation or simplification is emphasized, there's something precious about "Souvenirs of the Holy." It's perhaps the way Brock tends to emphasize these simple things as part of our spiritual formation. She paves the way for our contemplation of how we might be astonished by things and how they testify to God's love and grace for us.
She gives us examples like rocks, cast iron skillets, portraits, calendars, shoes and more. As her testimonies grow, there's no doubt that your own examples will come to mind as you reflect and contemplate. What do these things say to us?
For me, it's the small stuffed bear that serves as one of the few tangible memories of my daughter. A makeshift wedding ring reminding me of love and commitment. A pet rock that brings great peace. Lighthouse figurines offering light in the greatest darkness.
"Souvenirs of the Holy" isn't a complex book, though it's wonderfully instructive, guiding, facilitating, and encouraging.
If you long for a faith that encounters God through everyday objects, "Souvenirs of the Holy" is a wonderful way to journey down that path and to find encouragement in doing so. "Souvenirs of the Holy" is gently paced, spiritually nostalgic, and feels like a warm prayer and hug from beginning to end.
In a world where it seems either mass accumulation or simplification is emphasized, there's something precious about "Souvenirs of the Holy." It's perhaps the way Brock tends to emphasize these simple things as part of our spiritual formation. She paves the way for our contemplation of how we might be astonished by things and how they testify to God's love and grace for us.
She gives us examples like rocks, cast iron skillets, portraits, calendars, shoes and more. As her testimonies grow, there's no doubt that your own examples will come to mind as you reflect and contemplate. What do these things say to us?
For me, it's the small stuffed bear that serves as one of the few tangible memories of my daughter. A makeshift wedding ring reminding me of love and commitment. A pet rock that brings great peace. Lighthouse figurines offering light in the greatest darkness.
"Souvenirs of the Holy" isn't a complex book, though it's wonderfully instructive, guiding, facilitating, and encouraging.
If you long for a faith that encounters God through everyday objects, "Souvenirs of the Holy" is a wonderful way to journey down that path and to find encouragement in doing so. "Souvenirs of the Holy" is gently paced, spiritually nostalgic, and feels like a warm prayer and hug from beginning to end.
Displaying 1 of 1 review