Prepare Your Heart by Father Agustino Torres CFR Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2023)
ARC, eARC (144 pages)
Via: NetGalley
Rating:
Synopsis
Join Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR—founder of Corazón Puro—on a multimedia Advent journey led by the saints and the Holy Family to prepare yourself to enter into the story of Christ’s birth through prayer, charity, and joyful acts of service to the needy.
Prepare Your Heart features stunning original art by Valerie Delgado of Pax.Valerie, along with daily meditations on a passage from scripture, reflection questions, prayer, and space for journaling and notetaking.
During each week of Advent, you will embark on a new path informed by Franciscan spirituality to guide you to becoming closer to God:
Week One, the way of Nazareth: a spirituality that attunes you to the needs of others and the hidden presence of God.
Week Two, the way of the saints: featuring Sts. Lucy, Nicholas, Juan Diego, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast days fall during Advent; they will teach you to live with intentionality, humility, and devotion.
Week Three, the way of St. Joseph: revealing the creative courage of Jesus’s foster father, teaching you how he makes a home for each of us in the heart of God.
Week Four, the way of Mary: a tutorial in learning how to say yes to God’s call for your life and trusting in his loving providence.
Prepare Your Heart is perfect for both individual and group use. Free companion videos; ideas for celebrating Sundays in Advent with family, friends, and small groups; and a downloadable leader’s guide are available at avemariapress.com.
The book, videos, leader’s guide, and family guide are available in Spanish as well.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon
My Review
This is a wonderful devotional for Advent. I loved the different focus for each week and I can definitely see myself going back through this book slower during the Advent season.
I think that Fr. Torres does a great job getting to the heart of Advent, to putting ourselves into the presence of the Lord to prepare for His birth. This is a devotional that focuses on the coming of Christ in the Nativity in Bethlehem and also the coming of Christ into our hearts. Advent as a liturgical season also recalls the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. This devotional does not really touch on the Second Coming. It is more focused on Christ’s appearance in time. That is just fine. Most Advent devotionals focus on the Christmas event.
The devotional includes two reflection questions for each day of Advent. These are great questions to think deeper and really lead to prayer. I thoroughly enjoyed taking time to journal with these.
Another note is that the devotional does give a reflection for each day of the Fourth Week of Advent. Unfortunately, this year (2023) only has one day for the Fourth Week of Advent, Sunday. So there are six days of reflection that would be missed if one followed this precisely or seven days to be done on one day. This is just something to keep in mind for short Advents like this year.
In all, I really enjoy this book and see it being a useful addition to my Advent journey.
Have you ever used an Advent devotional before?
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for
review consideration. This in no way affects my opinion of the title
nor the content of this review.
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