• Advent devotion for individuals or small groups, with an Advent poster-calendar sold separately • Photographs and stories from daily life, for daily Christian living • Study guide included
Advent is a time of preparation, of patience, of remembering what grounds and sustains us. Advent reminds us who God is and who we are meant to be. This book offers a new look at Advent by seeing the four weeks through the lens of morning, mid-day, late afternoon and evening, and night. Photographs, stories, and perspectives enrich our travel and invite us to other dimensions of experiencing Advent, as a season and as a resource in our daily living. The book can serve as a devotional for individual or small group study for the Advent season, with a particular focus on the Year C gospel readings from Luke.
Melford "Bud" Holland is an Episcopal priest, storyteller, and photographer who loves to wrestle with the big questions, stand in the whirlwinds of living, and have conversations in and about God's vineyard. Retired as the Officer for Ministry Development for The Episcopal Church, he now serves as an interim priest, consultant, and EfM trainer. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania when not returning home to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
“In Advent Presence, Bud Holland, through his delightful and candid manner, shares stories that draw us into daily Advent reflection. We travel with him to West Virginia and California, Taos, and New York, as we explore beginnings and endings, people and places, experiences of community, and the vast openness of wilderness times. As Bud encourages us to notice, our stories can become ‘...beacons of hope and resilience...’ pointing the way in our journeys.” ––Celeste A. Ventura, author of Deeper Simplicity, Broader Generosity: Images of Financial Wholeness
“Bud Holland's Advent meditations are much more fulsome than those one usually finds in books intended for daily devotional reading. Thus, with more space for his imagination to wander, he gives us several angles of approach each day––we will each find at least one that fits like a glove.” ––Barbara Cawthorn Crafton, author, spiritual director, and head of The Geranium Farm
“The stories and images in this book are powerfully evocative. Neither forced nor shallow, they invite the reader into a quality of reflectiveness that is hard to find in our culture today. Bud’s gifts as a storyteller, image-maker, and asker of big questions will challenge you. You will be richly rewarded if you allow yourself to wander into the space Bud opens up for each of us during the busy Advent season.” ––The Rev. Wally Fletcher, D.Min., NCPsyA
“Bud Holland has created a way to walk through Advent as if you were walking with an old and trusted friend. His gentle insights into the season are personal, inspiring, and filled with quiet beauty. This is a walk you will want to take more than once.” ––The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, author of The Four Vision Quests of Jesus
“In Advent Presence, Bud Holland reminds us that the season calls us to remember, to be reminded, and to be open to surprise, and his thoughts and meditations can be a vital part of those calls for us. Most importantly, he invites us in these pages to see, to be present, and to experience God's never-ending call to relationship. I will come back to this book year after year.” ––Greg Garrett, author of The Other Jesus and My Church Is Not Dying
