The Council’s 2014 Advent Devotional Guide is now available as a free download. Each year, Council staff take a social justice theme as a focus for these guides to be used during the season of Advent or Lent. For this Advent season, that focus is the care and well-being of children.
As we say in the introduction:
As we enter Advent, that time of excited, exquisite anticipation, may we never lose sight of that season’s reality. Jesus, the one we await, was the poor, paperless child of immigrant parents, specifically an unwed, teenage mother who gave birth to him in a stable. As we adorn our trees and wrap our gifts, let us be mindful that there is serious disagreement over whether immigrant families should be allowed to stay together, whether children should have health care, whether the U.S. can “afford” feeding programs for poor families.
This Jesus, whom we await and celebrate, was pretty clear on the value of every child. His life – both how he began it and how he conducted it – must be a reminder of that.
