waiting

Change is a sacred gift of Advent, inviting us to trust God’s promise of renewal and embrace the hope of what is yet to come.

Father Robert J. Hater invites us to shift our attitude of waiting from looking to some distant past or future to the waiting that happens in everyday life which affords the opportunity to reflect and respond as Jesus would.

“Advent reminds us that a baby, like the little ones that grace your life, a Little One was born for us in time and that event was the real intergalactic moment that transformed human history.”

“Rushing to have and do all the things and readying stuff to look at and cling to does nothing to help us let Christ rush into our lives and ready our hearts for the kingdom of heaven.”

Before his death in 1968, Trappist monk Father Thomas Merton — in several of his spiritual writings — suggested that the purpose of Advent is not a matter of waiting for the Lord, but rather of recognizing his presence among us here and now.

“Sometimes in this busy world, we need some help to put ourselves in a waiting frame of mind. Brew a cup of tea, settle into a comfortable chair and let a good spiritual writer help you put aside the busyness of this season.”

“This year has felt more Lent than Advent, but it has been a time of waiting, a year of mandated patience. We have not all done this equally well. Many of us have grown impatient at the long austerity of the COVID crisis. We don’t all feel we are sharing the same burden.”

The first thing I’ve learned is that it’s always better when I release the tight grip I have on whatever I’m waiting for.