The Meat Tree by Gwyneth Lewis

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This is one of a set of re-tellings of the stories of the Mabinogion – medieval Welsh myths with an ancient origin.

It took a little while to warm to this, written as the dialogue between the 2 key characters or their internal monologues you have to tune in compared with most novels.

However once I got into it I was completely emerged in it – I will admit to being uncultured and so I am not familiar with the Mabinogion in its standard form – which might be an advantage I took this on its merit, but maybe I was missing some of the play and interpretation of the original text.

Set in a space ship this had the feel of C. S. Lewis Cosmic Trilogy – the interplay of sci-fi and mythology was key to the character of those books. Maybe in such a technological age it is easier to play our myths forward to a sci-fi future than it is to engage with them in their “native” pre-industrial setting.

While there the plot is fanciful the drivers are some very original human emotions and there is great power in putting them in a new context in order to look at them afresh.

Out of this success I am now keen to read the rest of the re-interpretations of the Mabinogion ...

Unearthly Beauty by Magdalen Smith

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This is an odd book, the sub-title is “Through Advent with the Saints”, but it is divided into 2 part “Advent Saints” and “Christmas Saints”.

The Advent Saints start with St Andrew, remembered by the Church on 30^th November and make their way with 11 reflections to Eglantyne Jebb (founder of Save the Children) who is remembered on 17^th December – remembering people in the order they appear in the calendar, but as some share the same day you end up with two reflections that might seem to be associated with a particular day.

Then comes the Christmas Saints, first up are John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Joseph, The Wise Men, Shepherds, and the Inn Keeper.

Clearly Mary’s significant to the Christmas story is not sufficient for her to merit a day to herself although she does feature in some of the other reflections, while meeting the Wise Men before either the Shepherds or the Inn Keeper is perhaps a reminder that God is not bound by chronology.

You then get St Stephen, Holy Innocents, Thomas à Becket and a couple of others who have a place in the calendar between Christmas and New Year.

So you end up with 23 reflections, and despite half of them being “Christmas Saints” all are written in the context of Advent which seems to suggest that Magdalen Smith expects readers to be reflecting on even those date specific Christmas Saints before we have actually got to Christmas.

I also found that some of the reflections while sound in themselves seemed to have little or nothing particularly to do with the Saint that was in theory our starting point.

Despite those structural criticisms there were some interesting reflections within the midst of it.

For example, on the business of the run up to Christmas, in particular the challenge for the regular Church goer of those services that draw many, carol services / crib services / Midnight Mass, who are unfamiliar with Church and bring a perhaps unwelcome air of chaos to proceedings she suggests that “through it all, if we let it, holiness will descend. It will descend because within that two-second stillness, that reverent hush… we will experience that warm feeling which tells us we are so happy to be with those we really love...”

While in the reflection on the Holy Innocents she quotes Sarah Bessey “What do I say? There is nothing to say? Stop thinking there is something to say to make it go away. It won’t go away. Abandon your answers. Avoid clichés. Don’t blame God. Learn to sit in the sadness. This is not the end.” Sometimes life is inexplicable terrible, people are inexplicable murderous, illness or natural disaster cruel and tragic – and we need to hold the pain for and with people, not try to explain it away.

Celebrating Abundance by Walter Bruggemann

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Walter Bruggemann provides a set of reflections that in his usual way challenge and inspire.

Taking Advent as a season expectant for the transformation of the world, not just “getting ready for Christmas”, he shares the message of the “Kingdom values” of the Gospel.

Giving 2 pages for each day, these are concise but fully formed reflections.

However the inclusion of a set of “prayers” for the 12 days of Christmas is less successful – in part because they feel too contrived, taking some small feature of the nativity and twisting it to make a contemporary political point. I found his decision to pay off a male Inn keeper who refused to host the Holy Family with his wife who had compassion for them and made room in the stable a rather weak play on historic gender stereotypes – something I wouldn’t expect from Bruggemann. Also, if you are following the liturgical calendar don’t tie in particular well with the reflections that might be prompted by the Saints days that fall just after Christmas.

Having really valued the book during Advent I ended somewhat irritated by it during Christmas… If you read it stop on Christmas Day!

Some Small Heaven by Ian Adams

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This is a collection of prayer poems, which are powerful and punchy.

Each one is accompanied by an image which in more or less direct ways resonates with the text.

I started to tag pages of the prayers I wanted to share, but I ended up tagging almost every page. Some have an explicit link to Advent but for most it is only implied and they would speak well at any time of the year.

Here is one…

Your Peace For a Peaceful World

To become peaceful ground

the peace you seek will need to evolve

from an idea into a practice.

From something you advocate, into something you are.

Peace in your world

can only come into being in so far as you are peaceful.

Your peace will produce a peaceful world.

Or you anxiety will produce an anxious world,

your fear a fearful world,

and your anger an angry world.

Your peace is not beyond you.

It has always been present,

an element of your divine belonging.

This peace is best rediscovered one moment at a time.

So today, practice the peace that is within you.

Let each decision, each action and each reaction

become an act of peace.

And so you will find that peace is waiting for you.

What Are We Waiting For? Re-Imaginig Advent for Time to Come by Willam H. Petersen

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This is a book “about” Advent rather than perhaps a book “for” Advent. Petersen points to the problem that Advent has essentially been lost, drowned under Christmasyness – both inside and outside the Church.

For the Church the challenge is that we are trying so hard to keep the Christ in Christmas that we don't have the time, or energy, to explore Advent. Advent, in Petersen's vision of it at least, is not primarily a period of preparation for Christmas – the themes of Advent are not those that bring us to the celebration of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, but those that look beyond to the second coming, the fulfilment of the promise, the new heaven and new earth.

Part of Petersen's answer is to follow the Orthodox practice of having a longer Advent – which in a way I tend to already do as I usually start those Advent books with daily readings at least a week if not 2 before Advent knowing that there will be plenty of books during Advent when they won't get read and so hopefully in this way I will make it to Christmas on time.

His particular scheme is to have a 7 week Advent based around the Advent O anthiphons, (although as shops push the start of Christmas preparation earlier and earlier would we end up having to further extend Advent to keep ahead of them?).

This would mean Advent Sunday would fall between 5-12^th of November. Petersen is writing in the USA and so is suggesting a transition directly from All Saints to Advent. There is an attractive logic to his proposal, but here in the UK we would need to fit any extended Advent in with Remembrance. Although a move straight from Remembrance into Advent would also work.

Petersen is keen to keep Christ the King, giving that Sunday Rex Gentium as its antiphon – personally I have never warmed to Christ the King as a feast (and less still to the keeping of “Kingdom Season”) therefore I don't see a strong need to accommodate it within such a radical reshaping of Advent.

The book offers sample services and practical tips, like the fact that “yes, you can have a 7 candle advent wreath”. Petersen is not merely theorising, he is putting forward a case for actual change, and for that should be commended.