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New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent

Enuma Okoro • September 2012

BUY Print $13.99

BUY eBook (Available in ePub or Kindle) $9.99

Usually when we think of the Advent story, Mary, Joseph, and the angel Gabriel come to mind. Okoro approaches Advent a little differently, inviting us to sit for a while with Zechariah and Elizabeth and the story of how they came to bear their only son, John.

"The Advent story we so often associate with the joy of Christmas actually begins with deep sorrow and longing. But thankfully, in the kingdom of God, there is always more to the story than meets the eye," Enuma Okoro writes.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were good people. They had maintained faith and hope in God for many years, despite Elizabeth's inability to conceive, a condition considered shameful in their time. So they were quite familiar with the universal human experiences of longing and waiting. Even though this couple's story takes up only one chapter in Luke's Gospel, it contains enough lessons about faith and life to last for weeks.

In her beautifully written, imaginative meditations for each day of Advent, Okoro looks closely at the doubts and longings of Zechariah and Elizabeth. As you explore their story, Okoro guides you to reflect on your own experiences of waiting and longing, of grief and the need for community, and of hungering for God.

These poetic and poignant meditations will linger with you long after Christmas. Reflection questions and a prayer challenge accompany each week's meditations. A perfect book for individual or group study.


Categories: Advent
Enuma Okoro is a writer, speaker, and retreat leader. She graduated from Duke University Divinity School and served as director of the Center for Theological Writing there. She is the author of Reluctant Pilgrim: A Moody, Somewhat Self-Indulgent Introvert's Search for Spiritual Community and Silence and Other Invitations of Advent. Okoro is a coauthor, with Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America's Spirituality page and in The Christian Century.

ISBN: 978-0-8358-1112-5

Kindle ISBN: 978-0-8358-1119-4

EPub ISBN: 978-0-8358-1170-5

Imprint: Upper Room

Pub Date: September 2012

Trim Size: 5.5 in (w) x 8.5 in (h) x 0.268 in (d)

Page Count: 128

BISAC Categories: RELIGION / Holidays / Christmas & Advent

BISAC1: REL034020

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Books by Enuma Okoro