Unearthly Beauty: Through Advent With The Saints

by Magdalen Smith

‘Saints are people of unearthly beauty who show us a deep understanding of the fluid nature of divine grace.’

This warm-hearted book is for those of us who enter Advent longing for spiritual sustenance to balance the worldly charms of the Christmas season. Jesus’ arrival in poverty and vulnerability provoked feelings of unease as well as expectation and hope . . . How will we keep the faith as Christians called to live distinctively in an age of anxiety?

Magdalen Smith believes we can be inspired by people from the past – those whose names are familiar or less so – whom the Church calls ‘saints’. In these wide-ranging devotions, full of contemporary stories and enjoyable cultural allusions, she introduces 24 characters who manifest a mysterious dynamic . . . and enable us to glimpse holiness in a new way.

‘With heartfelt honesty, clarity and humanity, Magdalen Smith challenges the Church to see the journey ahead with new eyes. This book is a timely prophetic call to be refreshed by our inheritance in ways that renew integrity and hope.’
Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport

‘A treasure chest of gems.’
Jill Duff, Director of St Mellitus North West training course

Genres: Nonfiction

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2017

About the author

Magdalen Smith is an Anglican priest working in a creative and diverse parish in Birmingham. She is a valued source of spiritual insight on vocation and ministry. She has been a Director of Ordinands and is a spiritual director, pastoral supervisor, speaker and a regular leader of retreats. Magdalen has the distinctive voice of a woman in public ministry who is simultaneously an artist, parent, daughter, spouse and friend.

Reviews

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I didn't care much for Unearthly Beauty, and I don't really recommend it to anyone looking for a good Advent devotional.

Smith has varying interest in the saints she choses. She doesn't give Mary, the mother of Jesus, her own section, instead spending most of the section on John the apostle talking about Mary. (???) In fact, Smith only gave three women their own sections: Eglantyne Jebb, St Lucia, and Elizabeth. Some of her choices were creative, like Samuel Johnson and John Wycliffe, and others felt very tired.

Often, Smith focuses too much on personal thematic "connections" with the saints, rather than actually taking her readers through Advent with the saints as the subtitle promises. Sadly, many of these excurses read drily and slightly ridiculously during the pandemic. For a devotional, which has all the resources of Christian spirituality at its disposal, this is a failure. The prayer ideas read like lip service, and distracted me more than they led me to prayer.

Oh well, at least this wasn't my only Advent devotional this year!

[Judy Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book to use for personal reflection during Advent and with a view to it supplying ideas for sermons during the run-up to Christmas. As it turned out, life overtook my resolve and I read most of it during Lent, finishing it as Holy Week gets underway.

It contains some inetersting and thoughtful reflections on well-known and not-so-well-known saints" associated with Advent and Christmas. It would make a good basis for a series of housegroup meetings. Each chapter has a list of prayer suggestions, which make it particularly suited to this purpose.

Occasionally I found the author's tendency to relate everything to incidents in her own personal life a little contrived, but other readers may see them as completely apt and making the points come alive.

I have returned it to my shelf in readiness for sermon-preparation for next Advent!

[Abigail]

This was good. short chapters and I read one each day of Advent which was nice. I think the author is catholic so I enjoyed the different perspectives, especially the focus on saints who aren't the typical ones, but I didn't agree with her 100% on everything, which is always good for me. I would maybe read through it again in a few years as another advent devotional. a lot of these would make good sermon illustrations...

[Lucy Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A few of these reflections were marred by the kind of middle-class smugness I've unfortunately come to expect from Anglican devotionals, but most were a thoughtful, accessible way to anchor each day of Advent to a different saint or holy figure. I learned about some figures I wasn't previously familiar with as well as revisiting some well-known ones. I think this would be a perfectly suitable devotional for someone new to the Christian faith as well as those who have practiced for many years, and ought to have quite a broad appeal within the church - there was nothing too controversial or contested (but, therefore, also nothing that really led me to think differently about faith), and the prayer prompts at the end of each day's reading were easy to follow and understand.

[John Howes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read