A Monastery Journey to Christmas...

 

Happy Friday everyone! I'm having such a lovely November, and hope that you all are, too. 😊 The intense weeks of my teaching semester are over, and I'm into Happily Anticipating The Holidays Mode. :-0 Even though I enjoy teaching, it's always a relief to get to this point of the semester. It's hard to really focus on other things with my daily schedule that tied up, and it's nice to have more of a balance back. I've been enjoying time with family, more crafting time, and preparing for upcoming dance events! How is your November going so far?

This week, my monthly piece went up on Catholic Mom, and this month I chose to discuss planning for upcoming Advent devotions and traditions. Someone left a comment recommending the Advent devotional that they use year after year, and it got me so jazzed, I immediately ordered a copy for myself! This is A Monastery Journey to Christmas, and check out this description:

Based on the ancient Christian tradition of meditating throughout the 40 days before and after Christmas, this small monastic book follows the rhythm of the Advent and Christmas journey as it takes place in a particular monastery, a place as small and tiny as Bethlehem itself. This book offers a meditation based in a liturgical, biblical, traditional, or literary text for every day from November 15th to January 13th and then February 1st and 2nd.

Best-selling author Br. Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette will help you fill Christmas with moments of quiet prayer. Experience a deepening faith while awaiting in joyful expectation for the Savior's coming.

It starts November 15th! 🙌 This is apparently an Eastern custom, and if anybody has the full scoop on the background of this tradition I would love to learn about it! But I love the focus on monastic living tied into the Advent theme, and I'm soooo excited to use this this year! I couldn't order it fast enough, the Amazon Prime truck delivered it just a few days later. 😁 It's also available for a few dollars cheaper as a Kindle download for anybody that is hankering to start with me on Monday!

Do you have your Advent devotional for 2021 all picked out and ready to go? I'd love to hear about which one you're using in the comments!