Your Light Gives Us Hope: 24 Daily Practices for Advent

A daily reader of very simple and often quite direct reflections by Benedictine monk Anselm Grün, this Advent devotional offers the reader an opportunity to approach the festive season consciously, making it a blessed time for ourselves and our families. 

Celebrated author and Benedictine monk Anselm Grün,draws on his experience as a spiritual director to offer practices for personal devotion or for family prayer for each day of Advent. Also included are special reflections for the Sundays of the season. Anselm Grün’s titles have sold more than 15 million copies in 30 languages. This title brings his spiritual wisdom to American readers who are eager for a new voice among titles for the Advent and Christmas season.

“Recover the original meaning of Advent as a time of stillness, waiting and watching. Fr. Anselm Grün illuminates a path for his readers through the days leading to Christ’s coming at Christmas, but also to his daily coming in our hearts. Twenty-four meditations on Scripture and Advent traditions are paired with simple practices to help all of us experience more intentionally Christ’s saving power in our lives.” —BuildFaith.org

Anselm Grün, OSB is a German Benedictine monk in the Münsterschwarzach Abbey. He teaches courses and lectures, offers spiritual direction, and is author of approximately 300 books focusing on spirituality, which have sold more than 15 million copies in 30 languages.

Born Wilhelm Grün on January 14, 1945, in Junkershausen, he grew up with his parents and six siblings in Lochham near Munich. In 1958, he came to the boarding school of the Abbey of Münsterschwarzach and graduated from the Würzburg Riemenschneider Gymnasium in 1964. He then studied Catholic theology and philosophy from 1965 to 1971 in St. Ottilien and in Sant'Anselmo in Rome, and earned his doctorate in 1974. From 1974 to 1976, Father Anselm additionally studied business administration in Nuremberg. From 1977 to 2013, Father Anselm Grün was responsible for the economic affairs of the Abbey of Münsterschwarzach as the Cellarer.

His first book, titled Gebet und Selbsterkenntnis (Prayer and Self-Knowledge), was published by the Münsterschwarzach Vier-Türme-Verlag in 1979 as part of the Münsterschwarzach Small Writings series. In 1991, Father Anselm, together with Wunibald Müller, founded the Recollectio House, where he has served as the spiritual director to this day. In 2007, Father Anselm received the Federal Cross of Merit, and in 2011, he was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.