Written by Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

December builds our patience. We must learn to wait. If you have an Advent calendar, you must wait for the next day to be able to open the next door. If you have an Advent reflection book, you must wait for tomorrow to read the next bit of inspiration. We look forward to time with family and friends. We look forward to giving gifts. We wait for the celebration of the Incarnation, God with us, the birth of Jesus.

Advent hymns are among my favorites. We only get to sing them for four weeks a year. The lyrics of “Wake, awake, for night is flying,” remind us to keep watch for the Messiah. “Zion hears the watchmen singing, And all her heart with joy is springing, She wakes, she rises from her gloom; For her Lord comes down all-glorious, the strong in grace, in truth victorious, Her Star is ris'n, her Light is come. Now come, Thou Blessed One, Lord Jesus, God's own Son, Hail! Hosanna! The joyful call we answer all and follow to the nuptial hall." We must be patient and keep watch.

Franciscan sister and theologian Ilia Delio invites us to consider Advent as a time to wake up to God’s incarnate presence: “The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus meaning arrival, “coming.” . . . [But] if God has already come to us, what are we waiting for? If God has already become incarnate in Jesus what are we waiting for? And I think that’s a really interesting question. . . . We’re called to awaken to what’s already in our midst. . . . I think Advent is a coming to a new consciousness of God, you know, already loving us into something new, into something more whole, that we’re not in a sense waiting for what’s not there; we’re in a sense to be attending to what’s already there.”

While we wait patiently, let’s stay awake. Let’s awaken to what God is doing in us and what God is seeking to become in us.