You don’t change your life for an idea. You change your life for a person. This Advent, don’t get caught up in the busyness. Don’t get lost in the anxiety of preparing for a day. Joyfully anticipate the coming of the person of Jesus through an encounter with his Most Blessed Mother. Imagine having an Advent that is more peaceful, more joyful, and more meaningful than ever before. The Rejoice! Advent Meditations with Mary Journal not only lets you walk beside Mary during the first Advent, but also lets you get to know her in a way you haven’t before. Rejoice! offers more than insights and information about Mary’s life—it offers an opportunity for you to encounter Mary in the quiet of your heart. Each day, in a few short pages, Fr. Toups provides you with aids to help guide your prayer: A word - Focus on a single word each day to draw out the details, the specifics of who Our Lady is. A reflection - Learn more about Mary, the culture in which she was raised, and the world in which she lived. A Psalm - Each day, you’re given a Psalm to pray (just as Mary herself would have prayed) to help you enter into prayer. A reading - In reading Scripture, you find the Word of God, bringing you closer to Mary, who carried the Word in her body. A prompt - Space is provided each day to journal. Record how the Lord is speaking to you

This Rejoice! journal is a prayer resource with daily meditations that will enrich your celebration of Advent. It invites you to experience the very first Advent with Joseph and Mary, as they await the birth of their son, the Savior of the world. Together with the guided meditations found on rejoiceprogram.com, this journal will help you to see the marriage of Mary and Joseph in a new light. You will ponder what was in their hearts and minds as they awaited the birth of Jesus-and you will be invited to reflect on and deepen your own relationships with others. Rejoice! will help you open your heart to the peace and joy of the Holy Family as you prepare for the coming of Jesus this Christmas. Book jacket.

Usually when we think of the Advent story, Mary, Joseph, and the angel Gabriel come to mind. Okoro approaches Advent a little differently, inviting us to sit for a while with Zechariah and Elizabeth and the story of how they came to bear their only son, John. "The Advent story we so often associate with the joy of Christmas actually begins with deep sorrow and longing. But thankfully, in the kingdom of God, there is always more to the story than meets the eye," Enuma Okoro writes. Zechariah and Elizabeth were good people. They had maintained faith and hope in God for many years, despite Elizabeth's inability to conceive, a condition considered shameful in their time. So they were quite familiar with the universal human experiences of longing and waiting. Even though this couple's story takes up only one chapter in Luke's Gospel, it contains enough lessons about faith and life to last for weeks. In her beautifully written, imaginative meditations for each day of Advent, Okoro looks closely at the doubts and longings of Zechariah and Elizabeth. As you explore their story, Okoro guides you to reflect on your own experiences of waiting and longing, of grief and the need for community, and of hungering for God. These poetic and poignant meditations will linger with you long after Christmas. Reflection questions and a prayer challenge accompany each week's meditations. A perfect book for individual or group study.

25 Advent Readings by Pastor and Author John Piper Come, let us adore him. This beloved Advent refrain captures the heart of the season. Advent is for adoring Jesus. It is a season of preparation to ready our hearts for the glory of Christmas Day as we celebrate the coming of the eternal God in our frail humanity. These twenty-five short devotional readings from John Piper aim to help you keep Christ at the center of the Advent season.

Christians know that St. John the Baptist prepares the way of the Lord. Which other saints can accompany us during the four weeks of waiting for the birth of Jesus? Through insightful reflections, Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, a pastor and radio personality, connects us to the lives of saints and holy ones suggested by the Scriptural readings of Advent. Father Greg draws on his love for the saints to offer us daily inspiration during this season of preparation. For each day of Advent until Christmas Day, we find a brief reflection on an Advent lectionary reading, with a saintly connection, a suggested action for the day, and a prayer to help us slow down and savor this season of waiting and hope. This perennial Advent resource will become part of your preparation for Christmas year after year.

BIOGRAPHERS have already told us much about St. Louis De Montfort and the Rosary; now, with this first English edition of THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY, we can listen to Montfort speaking for himself. Drawing upon his own experience as well as upon the experience of others, he endeavors to bring home to the reader, “in a simple and straightforward manner,” as he himself tells us, the authentic message of the Rosary; namely, that it is a veritable school of Christian life. He sees it as including essentially the meditation of the mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus and Mary, with a view not only to honoring but especially imitating their virtues as held up to our consideration in each mystery. Aeterna Press

Saint Augustine's Prayer Book is a book of prayer and practice―with disciplines, habits, and patterns for building a Christian spiritual life. It will help readers to develop strong habits of prayer, to thoughtfully prepare for and participate in public liturgy, and to nurture a mind and soul ready to work and give and pray for the spread of the kingdom. Saint Augustine's Prayer Book features Holy Habits of Prayer, devotions to accompany Holy Eucharist, Stations of the Cross, and Stations of the Resurrection, and a wide range of litanies, collects, and prayers for all occasions. The newly revised edition (2012) includes the treasured liturgies and prayers of the original while offering some important updates in language and content. Revised and edited by well-regarded scholars David Cobb and Derek Olsen, Saint Augustine's Prayer Book is a wonderful gift as well as a handsome addition to a prayer book collection. Comes leather bound with two ribbons in a gift box.