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The Art of Living in Advent: 28 Days of Joyful Waiting, By Sylvie Vanhoozer

The Art of Living in Advent

28 Days of Joyful Waiting

by Sylvie Vanhoozer

The Art of Living in Advent
Paperback
$12.99
  • Length: 104 pages
  • Dimensions: 5 × 7 in
  • Published: September 02, 2025
  • Imprint: IVP Formatio
  • ISBN: 9781514011386
Other Formats:

Nurture a Heart that Waits with Joyful, Expectant Faith

Step into the Advent season with The Art of Living in Advent, a beautifully crafted daily devotional by Sylvie Vanhoozer, who blends Scripture, history, art, and reflection to enrich your spiritual preparation for Christmas. Centered around the traditional French santons, or "little saints," this book invites you to imagine Christ's presence in your daily life—right where you are. Through thoughtful devotions, original artwork, and prompts for prayer and reflection, this devotional offers a creative and meaningful way to deepen your faith this Advent.

With her exquisite illustrations and daily devotions, Vanhoozer encourages readers to recognizethemselves as part of the nativity, welcoming Christ into the everyday. This Advent, discover how to nurture a heart that watches and waits with joyful, expectant faith. This devotional offers a pathway to quiet reflection, spiritual growth, and attentiveness to Christ.

Key Features:

  • Creative Engagements: Scripture, prayers, reflection prompts, and daily activities designed to inspire.
  • Aesthetic Beauty: Original botanical artwork by the author and illustrations of Provençal santons.
  • Rich Tradition: Explore the story behind French santons and their connection to faith in the everyday.
  • Daily Devotions: Each dayincludes a passage, devotional content, and practical applications focused on Christ's presence.

Begin Your Advent Journey

Discover a new way to welcome Christ this season by ordering your copy of The Art of Living in Advent today. Each day of Advent, take a step toward becoming a person who knows how to watch and wait joyfully with expectant faith in Christ's presence and activity in your own person and place.

REVIEWS

"Most of us know the story of Mary and Joseph, the crib, the shepherds, the Magi, and the angelic choir. Sylvie Vanhoozer retells the story through the lens of the Provençal crèche she grew up with. Her purpose is not to invite us to travel to southern France but to help us translate this magical depiction of the birth of the Savior into our own lives. The crèche scene is animated by the santons ('little saints'), where each figurine represents a typical villager, reminding us of God's love for ordinary people. And it not only articulates our waiting for God but God's waiting for the right time. Sylvie's exquisite devotional guide through the season of Advent helps us grasp the true meaning of our hope and thus our encounter with the Savior."William Edgar, professeur associé at the Faculté Jean Calvin
"This beautiful book is a gift in every way. It is hard to experience waiting as a gift these days, but Sylvie Vanhoozer invites us to receive anew the gift of the Advent call to watch and wait. She helps us to experience waiting not as something we simply endure but as a hopeful gift we can receive in our particular times, places, and callings. As we engage with God's timeless word and Sylvie's thoughtful words, and as we reflect on her delightful art and act on her invitations to pray, ponder, pause, and play our part, we will learn to embrace the gift of living in Advent. This rich and inviting book is for all disciples who want to indwell the story of Christ right where they are. It is for all who long to embody an attentive, joyfulposture of Advent anticipation all throughout the year."Kristen Deede Johnson, dean and vice president of academic affairs and G.W. and Edna Haworth Chair of Educational Ministries and Leadership at Western Theological Seminary
"A charming, enriching series of reflections that sheds light on some familiar aspects of Advent (traditional carols) and introduces us to new ones (especially the santons, the Provençal villagers who make their own pilgrimages to pay homage to the Christ child, gifts in hand). Lovingly highlighting the terroir, native plants, and local customs, these vignettes show how ordinary saints made the Son's incarnation their own in ways that resonate today, spurring us to attend to the unique features of our own place, ponder these connections, and await expectantly the appearance of Christ each day."Elizabeth Sung, visiting associate professor of theology at Regent College
"Sylvie Vanhoozer is a marvelous guide to the art of living in Advent. Her experience as a child during Advents in Provence; her theological pilgrimage in Paris, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Chicago, and beyond; her passion and work as an artist; and hermany years of ministry as a homemaker, mother, and host to hundreds in her home during Advent and Christmas have prepared her to write this very book. Follow her lead as you ask the Lord to come into your context. You and your loved ones will be forever grateful."Douglas A. Sweeney, dean and professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School
"For many, Christmas has become overly familiar. We know the shepherds and wisemen, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the manger. Sylvie Vanhoozer provides a great gift in this book by introducing another Christmas story, that of the saints in Provence, one that will be fresh for many readers so that we might be awakened to the arresting power of its origin story, God dwelling among us, first in first century Bethlehem, thereafter in our times and places. A guide for the entire season, this veritable feast of image, flora, story, and Scripture provides an easily digestible yet incredibly nourishing morsel of wisdom and encouragement for each day. As readers journey through the book and the season, they are equipped to plant the seeds that havesuch fertile ground this time of year in those they love, just as they were planted and bloomed for the author herself. I look forward to walking through the journey of Advent with this book, sharing it with others, and living 'adventish' always!"Amy Peeler, Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College and author of Women and the Gender of God and Hebrews: Commentary for Christian Formation
"Lessons from Advent don't have to be boring, and this book is proof. There are fresh ways to inspire, inform, and delight in the season. Here, the author takes the reader through the Provence of her childhood and, backed by her original artwork, re-creates scenes and symbols of Advent that teach lessons. She skillfully invites her readers to put themselves into their own Advent story and gives practical advice on how to do exactly that. This is a book you will pull out year after year as you approach the Advent season."Ruth Senter, author of Longing for Love and Seasons of Friendship and former editor of Today's Christian Woman and Partnership Magazine
"Advent is the most difficult season to spiritually inhabit: too many rich themes over too short a period with too much competition for our attention. And it all tilts toward cliché in the carols, the cards, the crèches. So I welcome this book with its fresh insights and simple practices that will deepen us as humans and enrich our communities. Rather than taking us back to the Palestine barn, it brings that familiar scene vividly to our homes and locales. Sylvie Vanhoozer animates our imaginations! She speaks of Wort and warts, warp and weft, work and wonder. She helps us artfully 'welcome Christ into our world whenever, wherever, and whatever we happen to be and be doing,' so that he can advent in us richly."Bobby Gross, author of Living the Christian Year
"Here is a book to make artists of us all, an invitation to experience Advent as never before. Bringing together beauty and worship, Scripture and daily life, anticipation and adoration, this lovely book offers a new pathway, in the company of charming saints and their most intriguing custom and culture. Here is richness worthy of the season."Linda McCullough Moore, author of The Book of Not So Common Prayer
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Read an Excerpt

CONTENTS

Introduction: An Advent Parable from Provence

Week 1: The Art of Joyful Waiting in Place
1. God Sets the Stage
2. The Crèche's Terroir
3. The Advent Walk
4. The Woman with Olives
5. How I Learned to BeAdventish (Part 1)
6. In the Kitchen Garden
7. Placemakers

Week 2: The Art of Joyful Waiting in Time
8. The Timing of Advent
9. Where Are You?
10. Imagining Ourselves in the Nativity Story
11. The Musician
12. How I Learned to Be Adventish (Part 2)
13. Lessons from Lentils
14. Storytellers

Week 3: The Art of Joyful Waiting in Solitude
15. God is Ever and Everywhere Present
16. Seeking God in Solitude
17. Fear of Solitude
18. The Shepherd
19. How I Learned to Be Adventish (Part 3)
20. At Table with God
21. Attendants

Week 4: The Art of Joyful Waiting in Company
22. God Gives Companions
23. A Great Cloud of Companion Santons
24. A Company of Flawed Saints
25. The Baker
26. How I Learned to Be Adventish (Part 4)
27. A Doughy Delight
28. Celebrants

Epilogue: Advent Away from the Manger
Acknowledgments
Notes

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BONUS MATERIAL

Download the Press Kit

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ABOUT Sylvie Vanhoozer

Silvie P. Vanhoozer

Sylvie Vanhoozer was born and raised in Provence, France. A certified botanic artist, she currently focuses her attention on her writing and art, partly inspired by the places in which she has lived. She is the author of The Art of Living in Season: A Year of Reflections for Everyday Saints and The Art of Living in Advent: 28 Days of Joyful Waiting. She and her husband, Kevin, live in the Chicago suburbs and have two adult daughters and one son-in-law.

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