Love Came Down: Anglican Readings for Advent and Christmas

"Easter Day is the center and crown of the Christian year, but no season of that year provides us with richer material for meditation than Advent and the twelve days of Christmas." So writes Christopher Webber in this thoughtful and inspiring collection of meditations from the most gifted Anglican writers of the past six hundred years.

Love Came Down draws on the best sermons, books, poems, and hymns by these writers, with a reading for every day in Advent and for each of the twelve days of Christmas. Writers include Christina Rossetti, R. W. Church, F. D. Maurice, John Donne, Jeremy Taylor, Madeleine L'Engle, Phillips Brooks, John Keble, William Temple, Thomas Traherne, William Law, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others. Brief biographies of the contributors are included.

Publishers Weekly

Webber's collection of Anglican readings for Advent and the 12 days of Christmas is a feast for the mind and the heart. He acknowledges in the introduction that some readers might be surprised at the "dark themes" in the liturgy during the four weeks leading up to Christmas, because our culture wants the whole season of Christmas to be a whirl of gift-giving and parties. But he says we must invest in serious thought, inner repentance and spiritual preparation before we are ready to celebrate Christ's birth. The readings come from a host of Anglicans, including Madeleine L'Engle, John Donne, Christina Rossetti, Phillips Brooks and Dorothy Sayers. Pensive readers who are willing to dig deeply into the riches of the season will welcome this book as a guide to observing Advent as a period of solemnity and hope. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.