Customer Reviews

Advent and Christmas With the Saints (Advent and Christmas Wisdom)

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2 star:		(1)
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"Advent and Christmas with the Saints" has a very attractive cover, after that it's downhill in my opinion. My complaints are an echo of the K. McDonald's, so rather than re-cataloging them, let me offer an example that K. McDonald didn't cite. Here is the quote: "...I have used the word 'kindom' instead of the more traditional 'kingdom' as the former avoids the sexist and elitist connotations of the latter." GIVE US A BREAK! The word "kingdom" was good enough for Jesus Christ, but not Chiffolo. I think that says it all. There are far too many good, faithful Advent books on the market to waste time or money on this one...but, as always, may the reader suit himself. (Yup, I said "HIMself"! Chiffolo would surely object.)

Part of my disappointment with this book is my own fault in that I was looking for something to use with our family, but this is written for individual use. It did not translate well for family use. But my greater disappointment with the book came when I discovered it did not follow the liturgical calendar readings or the saints whose feast days fall in Advent. There was no mention of the "O Antiphons" beginning December 17. While some Advent saints were included in the readings and the "O Antiphons" were dispersed throughout the book, it ignored the calendar given us by the Church. I don't understand why the author of this book thought he could improve upon the Church calendar. These criticisms would lead me to give the book three stars, but what leads me to give it only two and remove the book from our Advent reading shelf is its rewriting of Holy Scripture for political, particularly, feminist, correctness. Two examples: On Day 19, Abraham's wife, Sarah, in inserted in the Gospel reading to read, "We have Sarah and Abraham as our mother and father," when Holy Scripture does not mention Sarah here at all. Then on Day 25, the words of John the Baptist are changed to refer to the Holy Spirit as "she". We set the book aside at that point.