Advent with St. Óscar Romero

I cannot think of a better saint to spend this Advent with than St. Óscar Romero, the great Salvadoran bishop and martyr. In his time he also knew crisis and suffering on a massive scale, and yet he never gave up his hope in the gospel and in the restorative work of God underway in our present history. The gospel readings we will hear this Advent are the same ones Romero preached on in 1978. His homilies include some of the most moving preaching I have ever read, and I have compiled them again this year in an Advent devotional.

The devotional covers the four Sundays of Advent and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve to usher us into the Christmas season. Each homily is split into five short parts, with meditative prayer suggestions for each. There are no set days for the devotional—just come to it on whichever five days you can during the week. Ideally, you will hear the readings on Sunday and then be able to dwell deeply in them throughout the week. There is some space under each prayer suggestion for journaling or art, but it’s certainly not required. This is your Advent; this is your devotional. Use it in whatever way is most nourishing to you.

I am very grateful to The Archbishop Romero Trust for granting me permission to use excerpts from the homilies from their website in this devotional. You can read the homilies in full and even listen to some of them in Romero’s own voice, given as radio addresses to his people. What a gift!

The devotional is a free 55-page PDF. To receive it, simply enter your email address in the box below, and you will receive a link to download it. (If you don’t receive it right away, check your spam folder!) You are welcome to print it out or simply use it on your screen. My greatest hope is that in this busy season you will find here a place of rest and peace. St. Óscar Romero, pray for us! (This link is no longer live; please email me if you are interested in the PDF. Thanks!)