Prepare Your Heart: A Guided Advent Journal for Prayer and Meditation

by Fr. Agustino Torres CFR, Valerie Delgado (Illustrator)

Join Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR—founder of Corazón Puro—on a multimedia Advent journey led by the saints and the Holy Family to prepare yourself to enter into the story of Christ’s birth through prayer, charity, and joyful acts of service to the needy. Prepare Your Heart features stunning original art by Valerie Delgado of Pax.Valerie, along with daily meditations on a passage from scripture, reflection questions, prayer, and space for journaling and notetaking. During each week of Advent, you will embark on a new path informed by Franciscan spirituality to guide you to becoming closer to   Prepare Your Heart is perfect for both individual and group use. Free companion videos; ideas for celebrating Sundays in Advent with family, friends, and small groups; and a downloadable leader’s guide are available at avemariapress.com. The book, videos, leader’s guide, and family guide are available in Spanish as well.

Genres: Catholic

144 pages, Paperback

Published August 18, 2023

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of, Prepare Your Heart, by Fr. Agustino Torres CFR, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a journal on the four weeks of advent. The journal is broken down into, meditations, daily reflections, space to journal, and prayers. This book is meant for groups but singles can use it too. Its a great journal, I cant wait to use it this advent.

[Amanda Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration. This in no way affects my opinion of the title nor the content of this review.

This is a wonderful devotional for Advent. I loved the different focus for each week and I can definitely see myself going back through this book slower during the Advent season.

I think that Fr. Torres does a great job getting to the heart of Advent, to putting ourselves into the presence of the Lord to prepare for His birth. This is a devotional that focuses on the coming of Christ in the Nativity in Bethlehem and also the coming of Christ into our hearts. Advent as a liturgical season also recalls the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. This devotional does not really touch on the Second Coming. It is more focused on Christ's appearance in time. That is just fine. Most Advent devotionals focus on the Christmas event.

The devotional includes two reflection questions for each day of Advent. These are great questions to think deeper and really lead to prayer. I thoroughly enjoyed taking time to journal with these.

Another note is that the devotional does give a reflection for each day of the Fourth Week of Advent. Unfortunately, this year (2023) only has one day for the Fourth Week of Advent, Sunday. So there are six days of reflection that would be missed if one followed this precisely or seven days to be done on one day. This is just something to keep in mind for short Advents like this year.

In all, I really enjoy this book and see it being a useful addition to my Advent journey.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fr. Torres offers an insightful Advent devotional in "Prepare Your Heart." He asks the reader to place themselves in Jesus' childhood home in Nazareth, to imagine ourselves part of the family life of Mary and Joseph. He writes in such a reflective way that I felt myself consciously slowly down while reading the passages. The book is also beautifully illustrated and designed.

[Liz DeLise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little Advent guide. I enjoyed going through this with our CWOC group here.

[MadeleineRoseReads]

A great way to "prepare your heart" for Christmas!

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars