I like the idea of at-home retreats, sometimes call "a retreat in daily life", and I found using this material was a help in marking out Advent as a special time. The format using the Sunday Gospel reading as the basis of the daily reflection allowed you to engage with it briefly some days while making a fuller and more leisurely encounter when time allowed.
However, for me, the actual content was less helpful (however there is often as much benefit in reacting against the content of these things as agreeing with them). Ronald Rabb is writing from a context of significant urban depravation and it is good to be challenged by that as we move toward the increasingly commercialised Christmas season. That said there were moments when I did worry about the mental well being of Ronald with his immediate reflex to despair at the suffering of the world even in response to the hope filled Advent Gospels. It is true that it is in the deepest darkness that the light of the Gospel shines brightest - but I didn't get that radiance from him.
I would also warn of some Americanisms that are likely to grate, particularly the daily suggest "to journal it" however OED's verb "journalise" would have been little better... (And yes I do realise Ronald is American but I don't see that as either an excuse or a defence).
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