Books
Buttermilk and Dragonflies: Reflections from Ordinary Time
Mary R. Hemmer, Author
Author Mary R. Hemmer serves many roles, including priest, mother, Southerner, daughter, co-parent, partner, etc. After graduating from Duke Divinity School, she set out to join the minority of female Episcopal priests and has found great joy in this occupation for more than 20 years. She hopes that her journey resonates with readers and helps them to become more mindful, grateful humans, as it did for her.
Hemmer recognizes that we often revel in the action of the holiday season, roasting our turkeys for Thanksgiving, trimming our tree and wrapping presents for Christmas, and hiding eggs and roasting hams for Easter. But life mostly happens in the in-between times that fill our days from holiday to holiday. In this book, Mary R. Hemmer reflects on “ordinary time,” a word used by the church to mark the time between feast days. She invites her readers to join her in choosing not to miss the inspiring moments found in everyday life. By changing our lenses in small ways, we begin to see then celebrate those things that make “average” days anything but.
This collection of essays comes from Hemmer’s encounters with the divine during Ordinary Time, stretches of time in which we hear the non-seasonal stories of Christ’s life, including his many lessons and teachings, his interactions with his disciples, and his miracles. She says that “We cannot celebrate Christmas and Easter every day, nor would we want to . . . I love to decorate my home for major holidays and feast on special foods, but I need the predictable pattern of ‘regular’ life between.”
She hopes this book becomes a companion on your journey through the long green season, a term often used to refer to Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar. She also hopes you agree and disagree with her in turns. Hemmer assures that “Your prism won’t reflect God’s light as mine does, and you might find contradictory patterns between us. That’s as it should be! . . . My understanding of the divine deepens whenever I get to glimpse God from someone else’s perspective; I hope this book will do the same for you.”
Buttermilk and Dragonflies will be available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com beginning on December 10, 2024.
Other Titles:
Phe and the Work of Death
Mary R. Hemmer (Demmler), Author
Available in Paperback and Digital, Available to order at most bookstores and online
When we die, do we die alone? Even when surrounded by loved ones, the dying person enters into an aloneness, a realm where the living cannot reach. But is it possible that other beings surround us as we enter and then depart the final earthly stage? In this breathtaking book, Author Mary Demmler, an Episcopal priest, allows us to hear the voice of such a being, a companion and guide during the very last stage of life in a variety of human beings undergoing the ultimate separation.
"Phe and the Work of Death" is a book like no other.
In this story, you will hear Phe's voice, as you visit the dying with her, feeling the hope of the presences, and knowing their compassion and awareness of centuries-long experience with dying. In the process we witness changes even in the beings themselves. This is a comforting book, filled with love and with hope. Death, after all, is not the end.
In the Beginning Was The Word: An Anthology
Mary R. Hemmer, Contributor
Fundraiser for Valle Crucis Conference Center
Available in Hardback and Paperback
In a secluded valley in the mountains of North Carolina a group of women meet to write, share, and have communal fun. A result of this creative community is the anthology, In the Beginning Was the Word. Filled with writings of hope and light, it includes meditations, essays, poems, stories, and word games.
All proceeds from this book go to benefit the Valle Crucis Conference Center in Valle Crucis, North Carolina (https://vcconferences.org/).