Jeremy L. Berg

Just in time for Christmas, my latest book, A Contemplative Christmas: Portraits of the Inner Life in the Infancy Narratives, is now available for order. This is an Advent devotional to help you pause and reflect this holiday season.

This Advent devotional features first-person monologues that probe the inner lives of four familiar characters in the infancy narratives. Zechariah is struck mute and given an unexpected silent retreat. Long before a baby leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, she plays host to more troublesome inner inhabitants. Mary reflects on the Ark that carried God’s presence in the days of David, and what it means for her to be a teenage Ark carrying God incarnate. And Joseph shares his blue-collar faith with those who don’t feel ‘spiritual’ enough to be a contemplative Christian. These imaginative accounts bring these four saints down to earth and shimmer with timeless wisdom on the inner life. Each chapter features ‘Pause & Process’ questions for personal reflection.

EXCERPTS:

“We all have an interior space where all kinds of visitors, both welcome and unwelcome, take up lodging. They sneak in the back door and without taking off their shoes, track mud all over our heart and rearrange the furniture of our mind. They paint our interior walls every hue of blue, and leave cracks in the ceiling of our soul. They feed off our discontentment and doubts, and steal our joy and peace. The contemplative life invites us to conduct a regular house inspection, an inventory of our inner life, where we confront the inner voices, sort through the junk drawer of our messy feelings, and hand out eviction notices to the false beliefs and destructive lies we are allowing to live rent free in our inner sanctuary.” —From Elizabeth’s Story

“So, how did a simple carpenter like me become a saint enshrined in stained glass, and the namesake of hundreds of churches around the globe? How did a blue-collar technician end up in this little book on contemplative spirituality? By praying simple prayers while pounding nails and repairing ploughs. By humming hymns while hammering hot metal. By finding God’s glory in the grit and grime of hard labor. Above all, by believing that the God who formed humanity from the dust of the ground, could make something beautiful in me out of the sawdust at my feet. I wonder what extraordinary thing God is trying to make out of the steel chips and sawdust of your life?”  —From Joseph’s Story

Grab your copy today HERE and peruse my 40+ other books in my Bookstore.