Happy New Year!
This past Sunday was the First Sunday of Advent, and the start of a new liturgical year!
I was reflecting on some of the themes of this special liturgical season which begins this next year for the Church– hopeful expectation, waiting. And for what? For whom? For Jesus, who is not yet come, and yet already here?
This spiritual reality can be confusing and hard to grasp. Not to mention waiting can have a very negative quality in our human existence today. Waiting tends to bring about feelings of boredom, restlessness and a sense of being punished somehow by withholding the good.
Yet the ‘waiting’ of Advent is a lesson Jesus and His Church may desire to teach to us this season. I have been sitting this week in my holy hour with the question, “Jesus, what do you want me to know, to rediscover, to receive, to rest in this season?” So far, He has started working in my heart with the concept of ‘waiting’ fundamentally. This ‘waiting’ is not a lacking, but a full, active and present place for Jesus and I to spend some time together. Waiting in the spiritual life holds a richness we can be too quick to dismiss or rush through.
Advent is a time of preparation and renewal. Waiting is a time to take stock of where I am and where Jesus is calling me to go– and, how we are going to get there together! Jesus is in the waiting, not just the prize at the end. This is the mystery of Advent! This is the earthly pilgrimage of Heaven-bound Christians. All waiting is an advent season marked by Christian hope, love, joy and Christ’s peace.
No matter where each of us is this Advent and Christmas– where we are spiritually, professionally, relationally with friends and family– Jesus comes to that place where you and I are. This should expel any temptation to think that in times of waiting, or preparation, or transition, that there is nothing of value or worth; the temptation to think there is only “almost” or “not quite” or “someday” or “not yet“.
There is a “today” and a “now“, and it is on purpose, for a purpose. “Now” is an inn, (or maybe a stable)– prepare Him room!
Sincerely in Christ,
Krysti Patient
Assistant Director, Women Youth Apostles
Women Youth Apostles 