What are you reading for Advent? There are so many good books out there, and one of my favourites is this gem from Malcolm Guite. This man has poetry in his blood, in his family, and he is a pleasure to read! 

I am re-reading this one for a second time because it is such a great one to get you to slow down, think about Advent themes, and just enjoy the language in it. I recommended it last year along with two others, but this has lingered with me.

So, what does it have? There is a poem a day and a bit of commentary on it. It will slow you down, and it will give you hope.

He has carefully selected poets, old and new, for this beautiful book. There are older names, like Christina Rossetti and G.K. Chesterton. The newer poets include Scott Cairns and Robert Hayden. All the poems have been selected because there is something in them that relates to Advent and the themes of waiting, Grace, gifts, creation, and, of course, hope.

Each of these pieces is beautiful in and of itself. But taken together, it becomes more. It becomes hopeful and hope filled! His deep insight and spiritual wisdom created in me a new appreciation for each day of Advent and a deeper love for Jesus, Immanuel, the Light of the World!

Let's look at his entry for December 12:

The time draws near the birth of Christ:
  The moon is hid; the night is still;
  The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.
 
Four voices of four hamlets round,
  From far and near, on mead and moor,
  Swell out and fail, as if a door
Were shut between me and the sound.

Each voice four changes on the wind,
  That now dilate, and now decrease,
  Peace and good will, good will and peace,
Peace and good will to all mankind.

This year I slept and woke with pain,
  I'd almost wish'd no more to wake,
  and that my hold on life would break
Before I heard those bells again:

But they my troubled spirit rule,
  For they controll'd me when a boy;
  They bring me sorrow touched with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule. 
-Alfred Lord Tennyson

The man hears the peaceful calm of the bells but cannot listen. There is a fuller confession of grief and bitterness.

And grief does attack when we are in the midst of someone else's peace and beauty. 

And yet he returns to listen to the bells. It helps to control the grief. He returns to an earlier time when he was a boy and the bells were a comfort to him. 

There is healing, hope, in the sound of the bells. He is changed.

Malcolm Guite is Chaplain of Girton College in Cambridge. He has written a number of books that are similar in helping the reader to ‘see’ the Holy Spirit in the poetry.  He has written for the church calendar, including Sounding the Seasons, Word in the Wilderness, and The Singing Bowl.

Order this from Amazon or anywhere else and I am sure you will slow down like I did! You will see the Lord Jesus and his birth. Enter his world and be filled. Waiting, wonder, mystery, and mainly hope.

If you are read this section of the blog regularly, you know I love a good book. Great books are in every room of my home! I even have books in my kitchen.  I recently found these three that I would like to share with you!

​The first book I want to mention is The Word in the Wilderness by Malcolm Guite. 

I started this book last week because it has a poem for each of Lent and Easter. It is a very do-able read in the best sense. I am able read it over lunch hours and I love that the poems he has selected (yes, some of his own verse) are understandable. 

I want to include the poem for the First Sunday of Lent by R.S. Thomas. 

The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the 
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have 
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning 
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you. 

I love the gospel paradox in this. Losing to find, giving away to gain, giving everything up only to find it given back in a new and more beautiful form. The gospel and Lent is not about giving up and going without for its own sake; it is about making room for something wonderful. It is about clearing out the clutter, making space and time for the small seed that prove in time to be the great branching tree in whose canopy we will find a place. 

If giving something up isn't something that you do (yes, our family gave up chocolate), I recommending picking up this gem and reading The Word in the Wilderness!

Another book I am slowly working on is The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith.
​

I admit to starting this book at the beginning of February, and it has held my attention. It has held my attention to the extent that I have slowed down to savor it. 

I have read more than a few memoirs or autobiographies over the years. There have been a handful of hits, but many, many misses and it's been interesting to read this in that she is writing to people who want to write memoirs and do it well. And it's not just a good book. It's brilliant.

Well, she is brilliant. This book is full of golden nuggets. They are not general nuggets. They are personal golden nuggets of how to tell a story, your story, well. 

I cannot do the book justice with this minor review. If I had the time and money, I would take this woman's online memoir course. Alas, I will continue to teach and think and ponder of this one over the semester and summer break. Beautifully done!

Last, but not least, I am reading through the book of Luke in the Bible!
​

For 2019, I am reading through one book of the Bible every month. January was Matthew, February was Mark, and March is Luke. 

This is the gospel written by the doctor named Luke to Theophilus, his friend. They shared two loves. A love for Christ and a love for facts. They were interested in truth. The result is part letter and part research paper. Like many great pieces of literature, this was gospel is a labor of love. Luke studied carefully and wanted Theophilus to benefit from his study. With the skill of surgeon, Luke probes for truth.

Like all gospel writers, there are many beautiful themes that emerge. First, Luke portrays Jesus as fully man and fully God. Second, Jesus brings total physical and spiritual restoration to the body and soul through death on the cross and his resurrection. Another theme is Jesus experiencing the conflicts of life, yet performing miracles. Also, Jesus fulfilled God's mission and taught about God's kingdom.

Here are some others to ponder over.

Forgiveness at both human and divine levels are a beautiful theme woven throughout the whole book.

​His death and resurrection open up the possibility of salvation and make possible a direct relationship with God. 

Another thing I love about this gospel is theme of prayer. In addition to specific teaching on prayer, Jesus exemplifies a life of prayer by communicating with God the Father. 

The compassion or heart of Christ is there. Jesus Christ is the friend of poor, list, brokenhearted, alienated, oppressed, and abandoned sinners.

I wonder if Luke had any inkling about the impact of this book that he wrote for a friend. It is for the person who is interested in facts but has come to realize that there are things cannot be rationally explained. It for those who are interested in Jesus, but do not necessarily believe.

This is my little trinity of reading material for March. I hope and pray something in this has made an impression and you are motivated to pick up and read any of these books!

It is quite late for. 2017 Booklist but it’s right on time for Easter!  Here is the trinity of books that gave me hope and inspiration last year.  Daring to Hope by Katie Davis Majors, The Lifegiving Table by Sally Clarkson, and Christmas Jars are my top pics from last year.

I am a big believer in the combination of food and fellowship.  And I make no secret of being an admirer of one of the early leaders in the homeschooling movement.  Sally Clarkson continues to astound with the sheer number of books on homeschooling, motherhood, and discipleship.  The Life Giving Table really is one of her best and its a great followup to The Life Giving Home.  

This book is a wonderful combination of biblical principles lived around the table.  It's chock full of stories of her children, her ministry with her husband, and it also is outstanding in the sheer number of practical ideas that will help any parent get started.

I love how Clarkson is extremely family directed. She loves sharing her heart and feelings about her family and encouraging the reader to do the same. In a society that is all about self, Clarkson stands out because of her focus on building up the family and nourishing them and this is very self evident if you have followed her for any amount of time on social media or know any of her other books.

What I really loved about The Life-Giving Table is that she is bringing back a part of family life that has been lost in recent years...gathering around the table for dinner and actually being a family. We have gotten so caught up in rushing around to different activities and grabbing dinner on the go, we are missing out on an important time where we can connect and learn about each other's day and touch base with our families more.

While encouraging the reader to gather with their family around the dinner table, she has built this entire book, and the inspirational words on the pages, in biblical foundation. Throughout the book she offers scripture that you could pull from the pages and use for scripture memory practice, posting around the house for long-term focus, or just using as a thought for the day to ground your family in scripture. Clarkson also has included some fabulous recipes that you can add to your families gathering or just a nightly dinner that could eventually become a tradition in your life and passed down through the generations.

I really enjoyed this book and the study guide that goes with it. If family is important to you, I highly recommend this book and any others from Clarkson. They will help you lift your family to a whole new height and hopefully create some traditions that you can pass down to the younger generations so that they can carry them on.

I picked this up at a used bookstore a while back and it turned out to be one of the best Christmas reads ever!  The heart of this novella is about the transformative power of giving.  

This centers around a journalist who happens upon a human interest story that winds up teaching her lessons about love and forgiveness and renewing her own faith in human kindness. On Christmas Eve, twenty-something Hope Jensen is quietly grieving the recent loss of her adoptive mother when her apartment is robbed. The one bright spot in the midst of Hope's despair is a small jar full of money someone has anonymously left on her doorstep. Eager to learn the source of this unexpected generosity, Hope uses her newswoman instincts to find other recipients of "Christmas jars," digging until her search leads her to the family who first began the tradition of saving a year's worth of spare change to give to someone in need at the holiday.

This was short, heart-warming, and profound all at the same time!  There are great Christmas stories to be discovered that have nothing to do with commercialism and are not overly sentimental.  This is one of them.  I highly recommend this to those of you who love to read about things that can inform and strengthen your faith.