Celebrate Christmas with reflections and prayers for each day of Advent. This antidote to the commercialism of the festive season can be used for individual meditation or group worship. The authors are the former and current wardens of the Abbey on the Island of Iona.

This book includes a large section of biblical reflections, all of which were written for use in the daily services in Iona Abbey. There is an appendix which suggests ways of using the reflections. All the material in this book comes 'out of Iona': it was written, inspired, developed or used there. However, Iona is not only a unique and welcoming place; it is and always has been a sending place. Therefore, the final three sequences take us 'out of Iona' in the sense of going back into a wider world of city streets, hospital wards and police stations. Here prayer and politics belong together just as much as they do on that remote Hebridean island, although our engagement with them may take different forms. This is just as much part of our pilgrimage. We leave the island but continue on our journey, in the world, and with God.

This work contains poems/meditations about the experience of leaving Iona, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a period living and working with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, and protesting and being arrested at Faslane nuclear base.