Listening to the Music of the Soul

When it comes to inhabiting life fully, Mary is surely one of our greatest role models. 'My heart praises the Lord; my soul is glad because of God, my saviour,' she sings in the Magnificat. Her response to the Angel Gabriel's announcement that she is to bear the son of God is rich in nuance, contradiction and paradox.

These very characteristics inspire Bishop Guli to make connections between the themes of Advent and her own experiences - and to invite us to do the same.

In its advocation of the weak and marginalised being brought centre stage, the Magnificat is a song that opens us to the possibility of transformation, and this theme resonates through all the chapters that follow: Flight, Violence, Angels, Fear and hope, Reconciliation, Darkness and silence, and Light and space. Bishop Guli's forced exile from her homeland has echoes of the flight into Egypt; the murder of her brother Bahram during the Iranian Revolution of the slaughter of the innocents. Intriguing explorations follow of how angels continue speaking to us today; how fear of what might happen prevents us from living well in the present; how pain and loss can be transformed by the power of beauty; how daring to dwell in darkness and silence can lead to new life; and how important it is to find light and space, signified by the candles of Advent.

Deepening its resonance, each chapter is linked to a piece of music, and many readers will be delighted to find several that featured in Bishop Guli's popular broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.