Advent of the Heart and A Catholic Family Advent - Prayers and Activities Book Gift Set

• Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings - 1941-1944
• A Catholic Family Advent - Prayers and Activities
• Two-book set to go deeper this Advent

Advent can often be lost in the growing excitement for Christmas, but its importance in preparing our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child cannot be overlooked. This two-book gift set helps you take your spiritual growth during Advent to the next level, providing deep reflections on Advent as well as family activities to participate fully in this beautiful season.

A Catholic Family Advent - Prayers and Activities

For many families, the four weeks leading up to Christmas can be a time of great stress, unrealized dreams, a commercial blur, and a financial burden. Susan Hines-Brigger, the mother of four children, knows well that the days counting down to Christmas can easily become for parents and grandparents a nightmare of whiny behavior, crowded to-do lists, and a less-than-spiritual experience. That's why this mother who has seen and heard it all in her own home during Advent created this resource with prayers and activities: She wants to put Christ back into the family holiday celebration and help families - even hers - become holier. Using A Catholic Family Advent on a daily basis will give Catholic families time together to pray, reflect on Scripture, and do a simple activity together. This daily source of inspiration can be used in the family setting as prayer before or after meals, as morning and evening prayer, or as family time in front of the Advent wreath or Christmas Crèche.

"Susan Hines-Brigger has a way of making every day of Advent relevant...It made me look forward not just to Christmas, but to Advent as well!"
—Judy Zarick, author of Moved by Faith: Stories From American Catholic Radio

"The suggested activities are affordable, doable for a busy family, and focused not only on creating meaningful fun for the family but, as importantly, reaching out to the community beyond."
—Elizabeth Bookser Barkley, author, professor, and chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at the College of Mount St. Joseph

Advent of The Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings - 1941-1944

Fr. Alfred Delp,S.J., was a heroic German Jesuit priest who was imprisoned and martyred by the Nazis in a Nazi death camp in 1945. At the time of his arrest, he was the Rector of St. Georg Church in Munich, and had a reputation for being a gripping, dynamic preacher, and one who was an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime. He was an important figure in the Resistance movement against Nazism. Accused of conspiring against the Nazi government, he was arrested in 1944, tortured, imprisoned, and executed on Feb 2, 1945.

While in prison, Fr. Delp was able to write a few meditations found in this book, which also includes his powerful reflections from prison during the Advent season about the profound spiritual meaning and lessons of Advent, as well as his sermons he gave on the season of Advent at his parish in Munich. These meditations were smuggled out of Berlin and read by friends and parishioners of St. Georg in Munich.His approach to Advent, the season that prepares us for Christmas, is what Fr. Delp called an Advent of the heart.

More than just preparing us for Christmas, it is a spiritual program, a way of life. He proclaimed that our personal, social and historical circumstances, even suffering, offer us entry into the true Advent, our personal journey toward a meeting and dialogue with God. Indeed, his own life, and great sufferings, illustrated the true Advent he preached and wrote about. From his very prison cell he presented a timeless spiritual message, and in an extreme situation, his deep faith gave him the courage to draw closer to God, and to witness to the truth even at the cost of his own life.

These meditations will challenge and inspire all Christians to embark upon that same spiritual journey toward union with God, a journey that will transform our lives.

"As one of the last witnesses who knew Fr. Alfred Delp personally, I am very pleased this book will make him better known in America. The more one reads his writings, the more one clearly recognizes the prophetic message for our times! Like his contemporary, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Delp ranks among the great prophets who endured the horror of Nazism and handed down a powerful message for our times."
—Karl Kreuser, S.J., from the Foreword

Dimensions & Specifications 

A Catholic Family Advent - Prayers and Activities

• Author: Susan Hines-Brigger
• Pages: 64

Advent of The Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings - 1941-1944

• Author: Alfred Delp
• Pages: 240
• Format: Softcover