Longing for Advent: A Guide for Prayer, Practice and Reflection

Edited by Chelsea Logan

Contributing authors: Dr. Hilda Davis, Dr. Ryan Gutierrez,  Steve Teng,  Dr. Pam King, Dr. Mark Roberts, Dr. DeLano Sheffield, Rev. Dr. Jennifer Woodruff Tait, Dr.  Matthew Dickerson, Joy-Ann Wood, Raven Carey-James, and Rev. Inés Velásquez McBryde

Graphic Design by Justin Heap

What do you long for?

We all long for something. These longings are deeply personal and profoundly human. Throughout the pages of Scripture, we read story after story of people longing for peace, hope, justice, rest, and home. And yet, the Bible is clear that longing isn’t a human experience alone. It could even be said that we long first and foremost not because we are human, but because we are created in the image of a God who longs.

Of all the seasons found in the Church calendar, Advent is best suited to hold the longings we feel. Advent also occupies a unique place in the Church calendar, serving as both the beginning of the Christian year and the end of our calendar year. This allows us to view our longings in a space where time overlaps—a space illuminated by the light of what God has done, will do, and is presently doing.

This Advent guide invites you to experience your Longing for Advent—in desiring more than our longings themselves, but for the God who desires to meet us in them.

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