When celebrating Christmas does not come easily, David Bannon offers a book of reflection, beauty, and hope. Christmas is difficult for many of us. While some are expressing joy, others are re-living painful memories and reminders of loss. This book is a journey of beauty and meditation for those for whom ordinary Advent devotionals could never help. David Bannon writes from profound personal experience. His reflections provide a way to commune with Scripture and with God. These are paired with beautiful paintings created by wounded artists, including Gauguin, Tissot, Caravaggio, Tanner, Delacroix, Van Gogh, and Durer. In their wounds, and from our own, we may once again encounter "God with us." Based on the latest research in history and grief, Wounded in Spirit also returns to where Christian art began. From mourning in Roman catacombs to works of the masters, Bannon leads us to join the world's great artists on their pilgrimages of brokenness. This is a book of hope.

German poet Friedrich Ruckert's (1788-1866) youngest children died of scarlet fever, the pandemic of his age. Over six months in 1834, he wrote hundreds of laments that were published posthumously in the classic poetry collection, Kindertotenlieder. Here in English for the first time, these evocative modern translations by a fellow bereaved father reveal "an honest grappling with grief" (The Christian Century). Each poem is accompanied by practical insight for the bereaved, along with personal anecdotes, historical and cultural information, the latest research on grief, and discussions of literary and biblical allusions.