Resources for the Celebration of Advent

From books to prayer cards to calendars to counter-cultural practices.

“The Light Has Come,” the Prayer of Peace.

I’ve been collecting Advent devotionals over the years and here are a few of them (in no particular order) that might help you journey well through this season of Advent. If you know of any other good devotional resources, do let me know in the comments section!

The Light Has Come: Prayer Cards for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
My wife Phaedra and I created a collection of 25 illustrated prayer cards for the Rabbit Room. It includes familiar themes such as Joy and Peace, Mary and Joseph, but also less familiar ones, such as Fear and Doubt, Sorrow and Refugees, and the Fantastical and the Mundane. These prayer cards offer individuals, families and small groups an opportunity to experience the nativity narratives in a fresh way, in the hopes that they will discover a story that truly heals and restores our broken world. We hope you enjoy using them as much as Phaedra and I enjoyed making them!

“The Light Has Come,” the Prayer of Refugees.

Christianity Today’s Advent Devotional
I was invited to contribute to CT’s Advent devotional this year, alongside folks like Heather Thompson Day, Malcolm Guite, and Karen Swallow Prior, Russ Ramsey, Nana Dolce, and Daniel Darling. “Darkness, Then Light is a devotional for individuals, families, small groups, and congregations to help renew and refocus their hearts during the Christmas season. Readers will hear real life stories from men and women who have experienced the light of Jesus break through during the darkest times to provide hope and healing.”

My take: The theme this year is such a timely one.

Scott Erickson, Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now (Zondervan, 2020).

“Has the joy of the holiday season become painfully dissonant with the hard edges of life? Do you feel weary from the way Christmas has become a polished, predictable brand? You aren’t alone. For too many of us, Christmas has lost its wonder. What if we stopped treating the Christmas story as something that happened a long time ago and started believing that it’s a story that’s still happening today?”

My take: Scott Erickson’s illustrations are worth the price of admission alone. So good, so poignant, so beautiful.

Scott Erickson, Honest Advent, “Beginning.”

The #AdventWord Global Advent Calendar
”This calendar is an innovative way to engage in the season of Advent with God’s people all over the world. A daily meditation is emailed to you with images and prayers that speak to your heart. Images and prayers will appear in the Advent Calendar with others from around the world.”

My take: We can never go wrong by praying with the saints around the globe.

Romare Bearden, “The Visitation” (1941)

Bette Dickinson, Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder (IVP, 2022).

“Preparation for the Christmas season can often feel busy and frantic, but it doesn’t have to be this way. What if we stopped and listened to the movement and unfolding of God’s plan around us? Making Room in Advent is an invitation away from the chaos and into the space where God is at work.”

My take: Word and image always help us pray more fully through Advent.

Sylvie Vanhoozer, The Art of Living in Advent: 28 Days of Joyful Waiting (IVP, 2025).

“Step into the Advent season with The Art of Living in Advent, a beautifully crafted daily devotional by Sylvie Vanhoozer, who blends Scripture, history, art, and reflection to enrich your spiritual preparation for Christmas. Centered around the traditional French santons, or “little saints,” this book invites you to imagine Christ’s presence in your daily life—right where you are. Through thoughtful devotions, original artwork, and prompts for prayer and reflection, this devotional offers a creative and meaningful way to deepen your faith this Advent.”

My take: A French perspective on Advent yields a fresh take on the story.

Margaret Adams Parker, “Mary as Prophet” (2015)

The Common Rule Advent Devotional
“The Common Rule – Advent Edition! is a seasonal version of The Common Rule which provides a set of daily and seasonal practices for celebrating the King that has come and waiting for the King that will come again.”

My take: When a Rule of Life meets Advent, the result is a fruitful one.

Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ (Eerdmans, 2018).
“Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.”

My take: Reading a sermon a day keeps the devil away, and then some.

Caroline Cobb, Advent for Exiles: 25 Devotions to Awaken Gospel Hope in Every Longing Heart (B&H, 2024).

“Do you long for a more honest, imaginative, and Scripture-rich companion for the Advent season? A devotional willing to acknowledge the darkness of exile and the brokenness you see around and within, so you might rejoice more fully in the arrival of Jesus, the Light of the World? In Advent for Exiles songwriter and storyteller Caroline Cobb weaves together Scripture readings, song lyrics, poetic prose, biblical imagery, and responsive exercises.”

My take: Seeing Advent through the lens of exile is a gift to all of us.

“The Light Has Come,” the prayer of Joseph.

Biola University’s Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts Advent Devotional.
“Join us daily for the CCCA’s popular Advent Project, an online resource with scripture, devotionals, art, video, and music, as we remember the mystery of the incarnation and the Word made flesh.”

My take: CCCA always does a fabulous job with their advent devotionals.

Gayle Boss, All Creation Waits. The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings (Paraclete Press, 2016).

“All Creation Waits invites you to rediscover the beauty and depth of the Advent season through the eyes of the natural world. This exquisite book offers 25 daily reflections, each revealing the miraculous ways northern hemisphere animals adapt to the dark and cold of winter. With poetic descriptions and profound insights, it unveils the timeless truth of Advent: The dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes.”

My take: Boss shows how all of creation yearns for the full coming of Christ.

A Radiant Birth: Advent Readings for a Bright Season, edited by Leslie Leyland Fields and Paul J. Willis (IVP, 2023).

“Prepare your heart and spirit for the Advent season with A Radiant Birth, an inspiring anthology written by the members of the Chrysostom Society (for example, Eugene Peterson, Lauren Winner, Richard Foster, Luci Shaw, Marilyn McEntyre, Diane Glancy, and Walter Wangerin Jr). This collection offers six weeks of deeply reflective readings, guiding you through the seasons from the first Sunday of Advent through the twelfth day of Christmas.”

My take: Anything from the Chrysostom Society is a gem of wit and wisdom.

Advent Conspiracy
”Are you tired of how consumerism has stolen the soul of Christmas? Do you find yourself dreading Christmas a little? This year, take a stand! Join the groundswell of Christ-followers who are choosing to make Christmas what it should be—a joyous celebration of Jesus’ birth that enriches our hearts and the world around us, not a retail circus that depletes our pocketbooks and defeats our spirits. Advent Conspiracy shows you how to substitute consumption with compassion by practicing four simple but powerful, countercultural concepts: worship fully, spend less, give more, love all.”

My take: Advent should be counter-cultural. This resource shows us how.

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (Plough Publishing, 2014).

“Ecumenical in scope, these fifty devotions invite the reader to contemplate the great themes of Christmas and the significance that the coming of Jesus has for each of us – not only during Advent, but every day. Watch for the Light gives the phrase “holiday preparations” new depth and meaning. Includes writings by John Donne, Meister Eckhart, Dorothy Day, T. S. Eliot, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Bernard of Clairvaux, G. M. Hopkins, Martin Luther, Edith Stein, Thomas Aquinas, Dorothee Soelle, Philip Yancey, and others.”

My take: Similar to Light Upon Light, this book is chockfull of wisdom from saints throughout the ages.

Tish Harrison Warren, Advent: The Season of Hope (IVP, 2023).

“We tend to think of Advent as the season of anticipation before Christmas―and while it is that, it’s also much more. Throughout its history, the church has observed Advent as a preparation not only for the first coming of Christ in his incarnation but also for his second coming at the last day. It’s also about a third coming: the coming of Christ to meet us in our present moment, to make us holy by his Word and Sacrament. In this short volume, priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren explores all three of these “comings” of Christ and invites us into a deeper experience of the first season of the Christian year.”

My take: This is a great introduction to Advent for those who need it.

Sarah Arthur, Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany (Paraclete Press, 2014).

“This collection contains daily and weekly inspirational readings to help the reader prayerfully experience God through the liturgical seasons of winter. Well-loved classics by Andersen, Dickens, and Eliot join contemporary works by Frederick Buechner and Gary Schmidt. Poems by Donne, Herbert, and Rossetti are paired with newer voices: Scott Cairns, Benjamín Alire Sáenz, Susanna Childress, and Amit Majmudar. Readers are invited to experience Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in its raw strangeness, stripped of sentiment, and to turn toward Emmanuel.”

My take: This resource is like a box of high end chocolates: it all tastes good.

Kids Reads Truth Advent Bundle with Conversation Cards
“This bundle includes a Story and Scripture Book, 25 conversation cards to help you countdown to Christmas while exploring the biblical story of Jesus’s birth, and an ornament set. Celebrate our Savior each day by reading Scripture, answering age-appropriate discussion questions, and completing a fun activity.”

My take: I’m a big fan of beautiful work geared to kids. This does it in spades.

The Bible in Advent by Fuller Missional Formation
“This Advent, consider using our free guide and scripture readings to help you and your community engage Advent afresh by simply listening to the Bible together. Gather with your family, an existing group, or start a new group and delight in the mysteries of anticipation and joy. These are simple tools to help you pause, and reflect.”

My take: Fuller Seminary’s Center for Spiritual Formation is fabulous.

Sarah Shin and Shin Maeng, The Deliverer Has Come: A Christmas Story (Waterbrook, 2024).

“Told from the perspective of a young girl living during the time of Jesus’s birth, this uniquely illustrated nativity story helps young readers understand the “what” and embrace the “why” of Christmas. Through this child’s-eye view of the original nativity story accompanied by breathtakingly unique illustrations, husband-and-wife team Sarah Shin and Shin Maeng weave together the anticipation and waiting in the season of Advent with the celebration of the arrival of our hope through Jesus.”

My take: If you’re not familiar with Sarah and Shin’s work, do yourself a favor and check it out. She’s a theologian, he is an artist, and both make work that attends closely to the vision of Acts and Revelation for the beauty of God’s diverse family from every tribe, tongue and nation.