Hope for Advent

Advent is a season in its own right. It's also the start of the entire Christian year. So how can we best honour it?

We honour it by using it! It is the season which marks the start of the Christian year, so this is our opportunity to reflect on who on Earth the child is - not only in the manger, but throughout his life, and throughout our own lives, too. It's also a season to be lived in the dark. Light is promised but it's important to pay attention to the darkness as well.

This Advent book is a kind of travel guide or maybe a theatre programme. You may be visiting familiar places and ideas, or places and ideas you haven't previously considered in quite the same way. You might be surprised to find our Advent journey linking with other seasons, so it isn't entirely about getting ready for Christmas.

I can't promise you an entirely comfortable journey, but I hope it will be a journey that helps you travel through this coming year, on your own life pilgrimage, equipping you with hope in the darkness, whatever form that darkness takes for you.

As there are four weeks in the Advent season, this book is in four sections. In each section there is a weekly prayer, then six short daily rflections, followed by suggestions for you to try. So as we journey through Advent there are questions to think about, suggested further reflection and action.