Book traces Advent thoughts through the centuries

Intermountain Catholic

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SALT LAKE CITY—Mitch Finley challenges readers to reach back into the centuries to learn specific things about the season of Advent in "Season of Promises: Praying through Advent with Julian of Norwich, Thomas á Kempis, Caryll Houselander, Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence and Max Picard." Finley has selected the 14th-century’s Julian of Norwich, the 15th-century’s Thomas á Kempis, the 17th-century’s Brother Lawrence and, from the 20th century, he has gleaned from the writings of Caryll Houselander, Max Picard and Thomas Merton.

"[God] is our clothing," wrote Julian of Norwich in "Revelations of Divine Love." "In his love he wraps and holds us. He enfolds us for love, and he will never let us go… I saw that he is to us everything that is good." Finley responds: "The Advent season is a season of homely things – ‘homely’ in the dictionary’s first meaning of the word, ‘characteristic’ of the home or home life."

"Advent is a season of homely things because during this season we prepare for the coming of a homely God, a God who is so at home with us," Finley writes. "Our God is so at home with us that Dame Julian of Norwich, a 13th-century homely English mystic and all-around practical person, said that God is ‘our clothing.’ Imagine that."

For the First Wednesday of Advent, Finley drew from the writings of Max Picard’s "The World of Silence." "[Silence] makes all things whole again, by taking them back from the world of dissipation into the world of wholeness. It gives things something of its own holy uselessness, for that is what silence itself is: holy uselessness."

Finley writes in response: "The first Advent was a time of silence when all the world was at peace. The shepherds watched in silence. The magi, atop their loping camels, rode in silence across the silent desert. The animals in the stable waited in silence … During this Advent, then, should we not spend a little time each day waiting in holy silence for the coming of Christ at Christmas? Should we not take time every day to set aside the activities of the shopping season so we can wait in the holy uselessness of silence?"

Finley’s responses to the religious writers are clear and concise. He has put a great deal of thought into bringing the words of early writers into the 21st century, and making them appropriate for us today.

One of my favorite quotes is from Carryl Houselander’s "The Reed of God."

"It is the season of humility, silence, and growth

"For nine months Christ grew in his mother’s body. By his own will she formed him from herself, from the simplicity of her daily life."

Finley has chosen writers who draw readers away from the harried shopping, baking and hysteria that so often accompany Advent and Christmas and he calls us to silence and humility, if even for the few weeks of the seasons.

"Season of Promises — Praying through Advent with Julian of Norwich, Thomas á Kempis, Caryll Houselander, Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, Max Picard" is 64 pages. This second printing is by WIPF & Stock of Eugene, Oregon – www.wipfand stock.com.