The Wondrous Mystery: An Upper Room Advent Reader

During Advent we think about a wondrous mystery: that God chose to become human and lived among us. The Savior of the world was born a vulnerable child. The king who will rule all of creation was laid in a humble manger. The Wondrous Mystery invites readers to reflect on several paradoxes that make up the Advent season: light and darkness, peace and strife, solitude and community, simplicity and complexity.

This daily Advent reader incorporates meditations from Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life. Writers include Barbara Brown Taylor, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Sue Monk Kidd, Wendell Berry, Wendy M. Wright, and other voices from Weavings, which contained the teachings and perspectives of some of the finest theologians and teachers of Christian spiritual formation.

This book may be used by individuals or groups. Groups can use the reflection questions for discussion and talk about the meditations they found most meaningful for that week.

Compiler Ben Howard writes, "The glory of the Advent season is that it's irrational. It shows us a glimpse of the way that God turns the world and our expectations upside down. . . In a season filled with the longest, darkest nights, we are told to wait for the coming of the most beautiful light."