Pilgrims to the Manger

The Bible Reading Fellowship has published its advent book for 2010 looking at new ways to deepen and inspire reflections about the message of Christmas.

Pilgrims to the Manger is by popular author Naomi Starkey. She focuses on an imaginary group of people, of whom the reader is one, making a pilgrimage that takes them through the streets of an average small UK city.

As they journey, they reflect on the seasonal festivities, on the values on which they base their lives, on some of the ‘red letter days’ in the Church calendar before and after Christmas, and on the events of Jesus’ birth itself.

She explains: "I had been doing some reading about pilgrimage, and it suddenly occurred to me that I could bring together two ideas.

"I could combine the familiar theme of 'journeying to the manger'—reflecting on the events of Christmas, towards which we 'journey' through Advent—with pilgrimage, journeying in the company of others to a destination of particular spiritual significance.

"And when people are on pilgrimage, it’s not just the destination that matters, but all that is experienced along the way, whether individually or through interaction with others."

Pilgrimage can often inspire a profoundly moving experience of the presence of God from visiting a historic place but we can encounter God—or that which speaks to us of God—anywhere, even in the apparently ordinary stuff of life.

So the travelling group pass through a high street, down suburban roads, to a hill top beyond the city, and to the local cathedral, with Naomi’s reflections making the link between what might be experienced in such places and what can be learnt about God and faith as a result.

Naomi Starkey is a former journalist and the author of Good Enough Mother (BRF). She is a BRF Commissioning Editor and edits and writes for New Daylight Bible reading notes.

Pilgrims to the Manger is out now, priced £7.99, ISBN 9781841017099