Hallelujah: An Advent book by Cindy Rollins

When I found out that Cindy Rollins had written an advent book I was so excited!! I first heard of her when my hubby directed me to her blog right before it was closed. He wanted me to look it over before all the good stuff was put away (It's up again, so take a look!). Later she published two books, Mere Motherhood, and A Handbook to Morning time. These books were so wonderful to read in the immediate postpartum after Robert was born--in fact, I'd finished both of them within his first week! Her writing style is easy to read, and I felt like I was growing and learning right alongside her as I read the story of her homeschooling years.


Hallelujah is her plan for listening through the Hallelujah chorus throughout the advent season. She's broken the piece down to daily sections with corresponding scripture readings that make daily listenings very manageable. They run from about 3 minutes to about 11 minutes long, and we typically listened to it over dinner while lighting our advent candles. It was such a joy to hear my daughters singing along with it--even though they are not reading quite yet there was enough repeat in the piece itself that there were many parts they were able to sing along.

In addition to the daily guide to listening to the Messiah, Cindy has included some recipes and thoughts on celebrating the advent and Christmas seasons, weekly hymns, poems, and suggestions for the smaller holidays in the season of celebration and anticipation. There was more material than we could cover in a single season, but I loved it so much I am not planning on moving on to a different book for some time. I expect as we use this book over the years the rhythms will become more and more familiar.