Pocket Prayers for Easter

Advent is celebrated when the year is becoming darker and colder, moving into the death and dormancy of winter. Before we can greet the coming of the light, we need to engage with some themes that are challenging and occasionally fearful. Like the Magi who travelled a long distance to search out and adore the infant Jesus, and who took some wrong turns on the way, we too have a journey to undertake before we find that we have 'Walked haphazard by starlight straight into the kingdom of heaven.' (U.A. Fanthorpe, BC:AD) Haphazard by Starlight is a companion volume to Janet Morley's bestselling Lent book, The Heart's Time. Here the reader is given the opportunity to engage in a pilgrimage of the heart, through Advent and Christmas to the feast of Epiphany. Each day, from 1 December to 6 January, offers a poem (sometimes explicitly Christian, sometimes not) and an accessible commentary that is both critically informed and devotional in intent.

Christmas should be a time of peace, togetherness and celebration; yet it can leave all too many of us feeling overwhelmed by loneliness, stress and worry. In This Light is a timely collection of thoughtful meditations, The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, leads contributions from celebrities, business leaders, athletes, politicians and others, whose names you might not know but whose stories you will come to love. Alan Titchmarsh, Sally Phillips, Bear Grylls, Afua Hirsch, Bishop Michael Curry, Secretary John Kerry, Dany Cotton, Elif Shafak and Sally Lloyd-Jones – among others – offer their thoughts and insights as we reflect on this time of year. In a world that often seems in turmoil, these personal essays invite us to remember and rejoice in the true, timeless spirit of Christmas.