Return of the Siblings

Home

All By Myself

On Our Way to Advent

by Daria Sockey in Faith on Wednesday, November 09, 2011 10:30 AM

Cooler nights and shorter days remind me that Advent will be here in no time, and we have to get ready for it.

No, I’m not talking about making out lists, checking them twice against the listings on BlackFriday.com.  No such thoughts are permitted this early on. But I want to figure out my Advent spiritual practices ahead of time, before my brain gets taken over by cookies, cards, crafts,carols, and sale flyers.

So I’m looking over the current crop of devotional aids for Advent. Some geared more towards an adult’s spiritual formation, others towards the entire family. The “family” books generally include short, easy meditations and prayers plus suggested hands-on activities. The adult items have more in-depth meditations, and encourage one to delve into the scripture readings of the season.

Let’s start with the FAMILY items:

Welcome Baby Jesus – You absolutely can’t beat the price on this one – $1.99!  For that you get a daily meditation, a short prayer, and a suggested family activity, which could be an act of virtue, a craft, a drawing, giving a gift or further prayer and reflection. I like the variety and family-friendliness of these suggestions. None are complicated. Colorfully illustrated. By Faith & Family’s own Sarah Reinhard.

Joy to the World – from the same publisher as the previous title, Joy to the World offers a smorgasbord of advent activities from which you and your family can choose, by author Kathleen Basi. An advent calendar of daily activities (some fun, some service, some spiritual); the “Good Deeds Manger”; and the Jesse Tree and/or Advent Wreath. There are short daily Bible readings to go with each item on the Jesse Tree, and some thoughtful commentary on “reclaiming Advent.”

Now for the ADULT items:

Magnificat Advent Companion 2011  – 34 daily meditations on each day’s gospel, plus some unique extras. Advent Stations? Original commissioned poetry? I’m very curious. Given the high artistic quality of the monthly Magnificat prayer books, this is sure to be a soul-satisfying advent devotional.

Advent and Christmas Wisdom series – Ligouri Publications has a veritable library of advent books, but these were my favorites. Each title has daily advent/Christmas quotations from a particular saint or famous Catholic writer, followed up with scripture readings, prayers, and suggested actions. The newest one is St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Fr. Maurice Nut, CssR, has combed this saint’s writings for all that will arouse our wonder and gratitude for the Incarnation. That being said, the other titles in the series have me very intrigued as well, especially G.K. Chesterton, Thomas Aquinas, and Fulton Sheen.

Advent Grace: Daily Gospel Reflections – Applies the Lectio Divina method to each day’s Gospel during Advent. Each day gives the reference for the day’s gospel for you to look up in your own bible or missal, followed by a mediation, a prayer, and a one-line thought to take away with you for periodic recall and contemplation throughout the day.  These reflections were written by the sisters of the Daughters of St. Paul, fruits of their own meditations on these same readings.

—Daria Sockey blogs at Coffee and Canticles.

 Print Blog   Email a Friend   

Post a Comment

By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.

Return of the Siblings

Home

All By Myself