Product Description

This reader-friendly companion provides everything Catholics need for a richer experience of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Whether readers wish to follow a traditional, contemporary, or family program of devotion and prayer for Advent and Christmas, this all-in-one resource will be a treasured guidebook.

The Essential Advent and Christmas Handbook covers a wide range of topics including:
Morning and evening prayer services
A short history of Advent
The preparatory nature of Advent
Traditional hymns and symbols of Christmas
Traditional Christmas practices
A Christmas novena
Daily Christmas meditations
Family meal prayers for the holiday season
A glossary of key terms

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1063929 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

toss in garbage...
The editors of this 'handbook' simply cut-and-paste a hodgepodge of 'prayers,' a list of saints' days that fall within the advent season, and the daily Scripture readings from the missal to come up with their "essential" "daily companion" handbook. There is *nothing* "essential" about this book.

1. In the section titled, "Prayers Appropriate for Advent," one gets some new-agey "Prayer for Healing and Transformation," which isn't a prayer at all, but God, I suppose, talking to the sinner (repentant sinner or not, the prayer doesn't say):

"My love is like a wave breaking on the shore of eternity, forever washing over your weakness and wounds. My mercy endures forever. Every time you fail, I will forgive and heal you.... I release my power in your life now, and you will continue to grow in the depths and heights of my love." (pg. 91)

2. Anywhere a Catholic expects to find prayers once common to all Catholics, like the Confiteor, they have been helpfully labeled as "Traditional" prayers, but these are few and far between the prayers that read like the one above or like the lovely, comfy-feely "Prayer Before Confession":

"Lord Jesus, show me where I am failing to love your heavenly Father. Show me where I am failing to love you.... Show me where I am failing to love the Holy Spirit.... Show me where I am failing to love myself as you love me. ...." (pg. 90).

3. The section designated as "Advent Essays: The Church Waits" runs a mere six and a half pages (out of the 272-page booklet), actually containing four miniature essays on fear, the poor, light, and prophecy. The editors aren't expecting heavy readers to latch on to their "essential" handbook, I suppose.

4. The advent wreath--a central component to the season, maybe?--is blessed on pg. 56, and all four candles lit on pgs. 57-9, with two or three lines of "prayer" and reflective questions accompanying each. The prayers and questions are the usual nonsensical claptrap--"Are we aware of the wonder of 'self,' the gift bestowed upon us by our Creator?" (pg. 58)

5. The wreath-blessing falls under the section, "Traditional Practices of Advent," which is followed by short, call-and-respond "Advent Family Prayers" to be said every day of the season, and here is a typical one such prayer, in totum:

"Reader: Jesus, be our light.
All: Jesus, be our light.
Reader: Jesus, as a little baby, you needed the care and protection of your parents. We also need the care and protection of our parents and caregivers. Touch them, Lord, so that they may love us even more.
All: Jesus, be our light.
Reader: Amen." (pg. 73)

What is someone supposed to do with and get out of prayers like that, my dear Redemptorist Fathers? (They wrote this "essential handbook.")

I would suggest you do what I did with prayers like that: Toss them in the garbage, because the rest of the book reads the same...