A Radiant Birth

'In Advent we prepare for the coming of all Love.' -Madeleine L'Engle 'At the birth of Jesus, an event of cosmic significance by which we humans still mark our calendars, the invisible and visible worlds come together.' -Philip Yancey 'Help us to realize, as those who love and believe in you that we, too, are pregnant with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that day by day we are being enlarged.' -Luci Shaw The first Christmas sermon preserved in church history was preached by St. John Chrysostom in AD 386, in which he declared, 'Behold a new and wonderful mystery!' In this volume, the Christian literary writers of the Chrysostom Society reflect on Advent and Christmastide as a bright and meaningful season of anticipation and glory. Through forty-two readings from the first Sunday of Advent through Epiphany, contributors prepare us in watchful waiting for the coming of Jesus. We enter slowly so that the familiar can astonish us and become wondrous once again. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. But not only there. He is also born in us, that we might bear his presence and impart his goodness to the world.

Paul J. Willis, now retired, served for many years as professor of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He has published seven collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Somewhere to Follow. He is also the author of an eco-fantasy novel The Alpine Tales, the young-adult novel All in a Garden Green, and the essay collections Bright Shoots of Everlastingness and To Build a Trail. He serves as president of the Chrysostom Society. Leslie Leyland Fields is the award-winning author of twelve books, the founder of Your Story Matters Ministry, and an international teacher and speaker on matters of faith and culture. When not traveling, she lives on two islands in Alaska, where she has worked in commercial fishing with her family and where she leads the Harvester Island Writers' Workshop.