It's only 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem - just a couple of hours in a car, but on a donkey, on foot, pregnant? Mary and Joseph had no choice but to go in response to the command of an occupying force, yet in countless carol services we hear the invitation to make that journey ourselves, 'in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass.' Bethlehem Bound enables us to make the journey in the company not only of Mary and Joseph, but others who were also on the road - the shepherds, the Wise Men - and others who were in one way or another making ready for the nativity. The journey starts in the final week of Advent as preparations step up a gear and continues through to the Feast of the Epiphany and to the very end of the Christmas season, Candlemas, on 2nd February. Arranged as daily readings, each day includes the gospel reading set for the Eucharist, a meditation based on an encounter with a character in the nativity story, and a prayer. The journey had its challenges for the original characters and it will for us, but at its end is a wondrous gift.
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