HOPE IN ACTION: Reaching out to a world in need, based on talks and lectures given by Cardinal Vincent Nichols during the Year of Mercy (SPCK, £7.99 (£7.20); 978-0-281-07836-3), and with a foreword by Archbishop Welby, dwells on mission, mercy, sexual violence and abuse, human trafficking and slavery, prisoners, and religious extremism. The seven chapters have questions for individuals or groups.
Ray Simpson, Anglican guardian of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, offers 40 daily reflections in Bethlehem’s Road: A journey through Advent (Kevin Mayhew, £8.99 (£8.10); 978-1-84867-909-2) (Bible needed for readings).
Daily reflections for the season are available in pocket format from Roman Catholic sources. Waiting in Joyful Hope: Daily reflections for Advent and Christmas 2017-2018 by Mary DeTurris Poust (Liturgical Press, Minnesota, £1.99 (£1.80); 978-0-8146-4709-7) is the most compact, but a Bible is needed to look up the readings. Sacred Reading for Advent and Christmas 2017-18 by Douglas Leonard (Apostleship of Prayer) (Ave Maria Press, £2.99 (£2.70); 978-1-59471-777-2) includes the readings, as does the Irish Jesuits’ Sacred Space for Advent and the Christmas Season 2017-18 (Messenger Publications, £3.50 (£3.15); 978-1-910248-74-4). Vincent Sherlock’s Let Advent be Advent mixes references to the daily mass readings with random reflections (Messenger Publications, £3.50 (£3.15); 978-1-910248-80-5).
Jesus in Nazareth: Tales from his gap years, by Tony Burnham, a URC minister, is a work of pious imagination: 16 short stories to fill in the silence after the finding in the Temple (Matador, £7.99 (£7.20); 978-1-78803-612-2).