I Am Mary: Advent Devotional

By Carol Howard Merritt

Open yourself to the divine chaos and wonder that Advent brings.

"Do not be afraid, Mary," the unwed teenage peasant girl is told by a strange visiting angel. Her courageous response -- and what happens next -- still shapes our world and our faith more than two thousand years later. In this new Advent devotional, join young Mary as she experiences the surprise, confusion, fear, anticipation, and blessing that follows her brave response to God's call: "Here am I, Lord." Listen carefully, and you may hear that call in your own life.

From the first Sunday of Advent through Christmas Day, each daily devotion includes a scripture verse, a reflection, and a prayer. I Am Mary also features an Advent candlelighting service as a free download.

Best-selling author and minister Carol Howard Merritt leads us on a remarkable Advent journey with the blessed ordinary girl who becomes the holy and revered Mother of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chalice Press
• Release date: Sep 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780827231566

Carol Howard Merritt

Carol Howard Merritt is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is the author of Healing Spiritual Wounds: Reconnecting with a Loving God after Experiencing a Hurtful Church and Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation. She has also written two devotionals and is a popular speaker for preachers and church groups.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Copyright

Dedication

A Letter to Readers

First Week of Advent—Annunciation: Luke 1:26–38

Sunday: Confusion

Monday: Fear

Tuesday: Favored

Wednesday: Overshadowed

Thursday: Possibilities

Friday: Consent

Saturday: Lonely

Second Week of Advent—Meeting Elizabeth: Luke 1:39–45, 56

Sunday: Seeking Wisdom

Monday: Mother of My Lord

Tuesday: Shared Joy

Wednesday: Sisterhood

Thursday: Blessed

Friday: Being Seen

Saturday: Fruit of the Womb

Third Week of Advent—The Magnificat: Luke 1:46–57

Sunday: Magnifying God

Monday: Bearing Generations

Tuesday: Mercy

Wednesday: Scattering the Proud

Thursday: Uplifting the Lowly

Friday: Filling the Hungry

Saturday: Strength to Return

Fourth Week of Advent—The Birth: Luke 2:1–7

Sunday: Journey to Bethlehem

Christmas Eve: Labor

Christmas: Birth

Candle Lighting Services

First Week of Advent: Here Am I

Second Week in Advent: She Who Believed

Third Week in Advent: Lifting the Lowly

Fourth Week in Advent: The Time Came

Christmas Day: Being Born Again

About the Author

Copyright

Copyright ©2018 by Christian Board of Publication, 483 E. Lockwood Ave., Suite 100, St. Louis, MO, 63119. No part of this book may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission.

Bible quotations, unless marked otherwise, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover art: ©Shutterstock

ChalicePress.com

PRINT: 9780827231559

EPUB: 9780827231566

EPDF: 9780827231573

Dedication

To my mom,

Linda Carol Gresham Howard,

who spent one Christmas Eve

giving birth to me

A Letter to Readers

Dear Reader,

I have wanted to write this devotional for seventeen years, after I experienced Advent while pregnant with my daughter, Calla. With each kick, I embodied Advent longing.

After the birth of our child, so many portrayals of Mary seemed trite, like washed-out watercolor versions of what must have happened. Where was the pain of childbirth? Where was the messy, fleshy experience of incarnation? Why didn’t we hear more about the oppression women faced? I wondered how we could speak easily of the graphic brutality of the crucifixion, and yet be squeamish about the torn flesh and blood of birth. It made no sense. Until I realized that I had been told this story only through the experience of men, who had never felt the nausea and weakness of pregnancy, the pain and labor of childbirth. So I was grateful to explore what Mary might have been going through and imagine how she might have looked back and told the story.

As a woman I was able to explore these experiences; what I wasn’t able to understand was the intersectional reality of the poverty and racism that Mary faced. For this, I’m grateful for the work of Dr. Jordan Ryan, particularly his sermon