From the deeply meditative to the family-friendly, from whimsical to mobile, these reads will help you get the most out of this precious season
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Advent will very quickly be upon us, and with it all of the worldly distractions, commitments and tight schedules that have helped make Christmas itself feel–for some–like an ordeal to be gotten through, instead of a season of dawning light and enduring, mysterious love. Particularly in difficult times such as we are facing, we need to be sure we’ve made some time to consider that light, and that Incarnational mystery, which we will never fully comprehend whereupon, as the great Anglican Madeleine L’Engle wrote:
“God, who is all power, gave away power!”
So, here are some recommendations–books or “companions” that you can keep on the nightstand and dig into before bedtime, or before you rise–or in your purse or car, if you’re driving kids around from lessons to practices–or anywhere you believe you might be able to snatch a few minutes in which to take a breath, and remember, and give thanks.
Since I mentioned L’Engle, let me mention a book I’ve recommended before, her spiritual/biographical Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation. L’Engle fans will appreciate both her lyrical prose and the deep insights she brings into contemplation of her own childhood, Christmas, and the knowledge that she grew into. This is a lovely read, and since the season of Christmas is only beginning on December 25, it makes a nice gift, too.
If your life is a bit fast-paced, pick up the Magnificat Advent Companion. This blessedly inexpensive volume is as reliable a publication you are going to find. Magnificat pulls together thoughtful essays, scripture, poetry and devotionals –it’s the whole package–and I will have one in my purse throughout the season, for those random moments. Even better, download the Advent Companion App, which is lovely, and available for android, iOS and e-book readers.
A fan of Mother Teresa’s? Pick up Advent with Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Heidi Hess Saxton’s book of daily meditations taking you through Advent and Christmas.
If you’re looking for Advent prayers to share with the kids, and don’t want to overdo, Lisa Hendey’s O Radiant Dawn: 5-Minute Prayers Around the Advent Wreath is perfectly suited to that activity. It’s delightful.
For something a bit heavier but incredibly uplifting and instructive, try Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons And Prison Writings 1941-1944. Fr. Alfred Delp was a German Jesuit priest who died in a Nazi death camp in 1945.
The gray horizons must light up. Only the foreground is screaming so loudly and penetratingly. Farther back, where it has to do with things that really count, the situation is already changing. The woman has conceived the Child, sheltered Him in her heart, an has given birth to her Son. The world has come under a different law. All these are not merely one-time historical events upon which our salvation rests. They are simultaneously the model figures and events that announce to us the new order of things, of life, of our existence.
You can read more about Fr. Delp in this piece written by a fellow Jesuit.
One of Delp’s contemporaries, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, has his words and work included in Watch For The Light: Readings For Advent And Christmas; this is one of those books I find myself going to every Advent. I keep it on a spare table in my office and pick it up randomly, and always find myself reading precisely what I needed to read in that moment. It also contains words by Dorothy Day, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Philip Yancey, Madeleine L Engle, Henri Nouwen, Kathleen Norris.
On the other hand you can’t go wrong with St. Thomas Aquinas, and so Advent and Christmas Wisdom from St. Thomas Aquinas is another of my own choices for this season. This is a quick daily read: a bit of scripture, a bit of the Angelic Doctor and an invitation to a few minutes of contemplation.
Feel like coloring your way through your Advent meditations? The wonderful, innovative artist Daniel Mitsui this year released The Mysteries of the Rosary: An Adult Coloring Book which will keep you focused and busy (and contains a few pages suitable for smaller hands and bigger crayons), and Paraclete Press offers an Advent Coloring Book to Bless and De-Stress
I am going to heartily recommend, among other books, Brent Landau’s Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem for gift-giving, but this is also excellent Advent reading, if you are–as I am–fascinated by the Magi, and the notion that their journey, begun “in the East at the edge of the Ocean” is rounding out, 2000 years later, with the Christian in the Near and Middle East (and the Far East, too) facing renewed persecutions. The illustrations are fascinating and enlightening, and the prose of the ancients singing the praises of God is not just lyrical, it is hypnotically joyful. This is a fast read, but it makes the heart soar.
This book of Advent reflections by Mother Mary Francis, PCC, author of A Right to be Merry, is also terrific: Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting:
“But it is a wonderful thing that we are not happy with ourselves, because the most terrible thing would be that we are at peace with our faults, absorbed in ourselves, blaming our faults on other people… the tenderness, the sweetness of Advent is wedded to that great mystery which begins with the call: Now is the time. Now is the hour. Wake up and be made perfect in holiness.”
– Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.
Theresa Tomeo’s book is not precisely Advent-themed, but God’s Bucket List can help bring useful perspective to what is important in this busy time.
And to make sure you’re completely ready for the season, don’t forget these beeswax Advent Candles, hand-dipped by Dominican nuns.
