Along with scripture readings and prayers, this book offers four weeks of meditations that focus on the growth of Jesus in the womb of Mary. Mark Bozzutti-Jones offers a unique perspective on the season of Advent. He provides four weeks of meditations that focus on the growth of Jesus in the womb of Mary as he approaches the day of his birth, learns his mother's voice, responds to the presence of light and dark, and begins to position himself for birth. What does this teach us about our own spiritual journey through Advent? Waiting and preparation is essential to the Christian life. By reflecting on our own birth experiences and Jesus' own progress through the womb, Christians can learn how to remain intimate with God, how to approach the light, and how to get ready for new birth in Christ. The Womb of Advent guides the reader through each day with a mantra, scripture reading, and questions to focus our meditation. Each session ends with a spiritual exercise.

This talented and imaginative writer offers a unique perspective on the season of Advent. Along with Scripture readings and prayers, Bozzuti-Jones offers four weeks of meditations that focus on the growth of Jesus in the womb of Mary as he approaches the day of his birth, learns his mothers voice, and represents the importance of waiting and preparation in a Christian life.

The next installment in the critically praised lectionary series that focuses on women's stories. In this second volume of the three-volume Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, widely praised womanist bible scholar and priest Wil Gafney selects scripture readings that emphasize women's stories. Focusing especially on the Gospel of Mark, Year B of A Women's Lectionary features Gafney's fresh, inclusive, and thought-provoking translations of every reading, alongside commentary on each reading. Designed for liturgical use or scriptural study, this resource offers a new perspective on the Bible and the liturgical year. "Gafney's paradigm-shifting scholarship will influence biblical preaching and teaching for generations to come." --National Catholic Reporter

When you hear a riveting story, does it thrill your heart and stir your soul? Do you hunger for truth and goodness? Do you secretly relate to Belle’s delight in the library in Beauty and the Beast? If so, you may be on your way to being a book girl. Books were always Sarah Clarkson’s delight. Raised in the company of the lively Anne of Green Gables, the brave Pevensie children of Narnia, and the wise Austen heroines, she discovered reading early on as a daily gift, a way of encountering the world in all its wonder. But what she came to realize as an adult was just how powerfully books had shaped her as a woman to live a story within that world, to be a lifelong learner, to grasp hope in struggle, and to create and act with courage. She’s convinced that books can do the same for you. Join Sarah in exploring the reading life as a gift and an adventure, one meant to enrich, broaden, and delight you in each season of your life as a woman. In Book Girl, you’ll discover: how reading can strengthen your spiritual life and deepen your faith, why a journey through classic literature might be just what you need (and where to begin), how stories form your sense of identity, how Sarah’s parents raised her to be a reader—and what you can do to cultivate a love of reading in the growing readers around you, and 20+ annotated book lists, including some old favorites and many new discoveries. Whether you’ve long considered yourself a reader or have dreams of becoming one, Book Girl will draw you into the life-giving journey of becoming a woman who reads and lives well.

Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals, written by Marilyn E. Thornton with material from the first edition by Cheryl Kirk-Duggan. Mary Had a Babyhas four sessions, one for each week of Advent, and is perfect for small groups, Sunday school, midweek sessions, and choir workshops. Each lesson includes Scripture, song lyrics, devotional and contextual information, and discussion questions to stimulate deepening faith and a sense of community. The book includes leader helps. The four spirituals featured in Mary Had a Baby are “Mary Had a Baby,” “Rise Up Shepherd and Follow,” “Children, Go Where I Send Thee, “ and “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.” A mp3 file of the four songs is available free with purchase of the study.

The Reed of God is an inspirational classic written by a British Roman Catholic ecclesiastical artist, Caryll Houselander. This book contains a beautiful meditation on Mary, Mother of God and so much more. Reading this book will bring you closer to Our Blessed Mother, and hence, to Christ Himself. Filled with lyrical prose and touching analogies, the author shows how Mary was the "Reed of God" and that we are all vessels waiting to do God's work, and carrying Christ within us.

Often our Advent/Christmas journey is focused on us our memories, feelings, relationships and experiences. This study puts the focus on Gods action in Jesus Christ. It encourages participants to think more deeply in terms of the biblical, theological and spiritual meaning of the Nativity, while still applying it to their own life experience.