Journey to the Manger with St. Patrick & Friends – a six week Celtic Advent Devotional. By Jean

“Is your journey to Christmas usually filled with thoughts of wishing you could skip right past the season? Does your pace of life become so fast that you feel you are spinning out of control? Would you like to find a more peace-filled path on your journey this year?”

The lead up to Christmas can be very hectic, and these questions, found on the back of this book, may well be ones which you desire an answer to. Could this book hold the answers?

In ‘Journey to the Manger’ Jean McLachlan Hess creates a daily devotional for the Advent season. Although Celtic Advent begins on November 15th, as Hess states in the introduction, she has begun this devotional on November 11th, the feast day of Martin of Tours, to bring in the history of Martin’s connection with Celtic Christianity, and also to enable this devotional to be six full weeks, rather than simply the 40 days of the traditional Celtic Advent (plus a single extra devotional at the back for those who celebrate Thanksgiving).

Each day you will find a scripture and an expansion in some way of it or a theme, then you are invited to follow the led parts to ‘Ponder’, ‘Dwell’ and ‘Action’ to complete each days devotion.

Although you will learn a great deal more about the author’s life than you will about Celtic Christianity from this book, the interweaving of tales of the Celtic saints and many folk from the Bible are well placed, with a little romanticised Celticism to add a bit of seasonal sparkle to the history, and, as the title suggests, Patrick is the most common Celtic companion on this Advent journey, and you will have the opportunity to visit parts of ‘Patrick’s breastplate’ 3 times as you journey towards Christmas.

The six weeks are separated into a theme for each week as you journey towards the birth of God the Son on Christmas day: week 1 - God (although I suspect Hess means ‘Father’); week 2 – Holy Spirit; week 3 – Hope; week 4 – Peace; week 5 – Joy; and week 6 – Love. These themes are brought out through story and teaching and provoking the reader to think about their own life in very down to earth personal ways.

If you are looking for an Advent devotional with a Celtic thread, then this book may well be what you are looking for, to help you engage daily with the God who is always there, always with us. As Hess says near the end of the introduction: ‘The Celtic Advent is designed to invite Emmanuel to travel with us on our journey to the Manger. It is designed to invite Emmanuel to be our navigator through the smooth and rough terrain of this season. It is designed to invite Emmanuel to impart His vision to us individually, that we may reach our destination renewed and focused on Him.’

Jean McLachlan Hess is a native Scot who now lives in Denver, USA. She is a member of The Community of Aidan & Hilda, and with her husband Rick pastors a Celtic based church in Denver called 316 (three sixteen). You can find out more about 316 at their website.