Marilyn McEntyre – författare

These daily reflections for the season of Advent focus on the question of how we are to live into the promise of the season and the challenges of our historical moment, and how we might, as we focus again on the great theme of waiting in Christian life, practice the presence of God. They include pieces entitled, for instance, "Live Boldly," "Live Patiently," "Live Harmoniously," and "Live Repentantly." Based on the author''s own efforts to accept the invitation of Advent each year as a time of interior renewal, these short essays are meant as invitations to reclaim a holy season and enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed--as "the crowning of the year."

These poems, written for occasions, remind us of those occasions that recur--celebrations, commemorations, rites of passage, and ordinary moments of being that linger in memory as turning points or extraordinary encounters or summonings. Tied as they are to particular times and places, readers will recognize in them echoes of their own beginnings, partings, and moments of awakening.

Many remember The Scarlet Letter as required reading for reluctant sixteen year olds. The unnamed, elusive narrator of Hawthorne''s tale of human frailty and sorrow is--some readers might say maddeningly--indirect, ambiguous, and inconsistent. Readers who hope to arrive at satisfying judgments about the book''s four iconic characters--Hester, Arthur, Roger, and Pearl--are often left to arrive at their conclusions by guess and inference. The narrator provides what seems to be willfully incomplete information. His point of view shifts from one moral or historical perspective to another without announcement or apology. Reading Like a Serpent invites readers to reconsider this American classic as Hawthorne''s challenge to the American public to become more generous, versatile, and responsible readers--especially of the Bible, a book Hawthorne hoped to rescue from moralistic literalists and legalists, reminding us that the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

"e;Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."e;Christ promises to be with you always. Yet how often do you feel misunderstood, scared, and abandoned? In the much beloved "e;St. Patrick's Prayer,"e; the patron saint of Ireland passionately invokes the ways Christ is present to us. Inspired by this litany, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre shares her contemporary reflections on St. Patrick's ancient, yet timeless, prayer. Her thirteen deeply devotional meditations take you on a journey through Christ's love for you. By the end, the poignant words of this prayer are sure to be etched in your heart forever--a comfort for times when you question where God really is. You will be left resting peacefully in the assurance of a divine embrace that will not let you go.