Advent: our time of waiting

     Have you ever had the experience of waiting for a baby to come?  There is much anticipation and excitement while getting ready.  There is expectation and hope and much preparation. 

     This is our Season of Advent.  We are indeed waiting for a baby to be born.  The baby is very special, He is our Savior!  While the Jewish People were awaiting the Messiah and Mary and Joseph were awaiting the birth of Jesus, there was much hope and anticipation. 

     Although Jesus was born over 2000 years ago, we must also live this reality in our own lives to make it present to us today.  We do this through our celebration of the various feasts of the Church.  We do this through our celebration of liturgy and our celebration of the Church’s liturgical year. 

     The liturgy of Advent is rich and meaningful.  Through it, we enter into the mystery of Jesus and the mystery of waiting and anticipation.  This is why the Church insists on the Season of Advent as a time of waiting and preparation.  However, our culture is such that we must always be very busy about so many things.  Like the Gospel, when Jesus tells Martha, his friend, “You are worried and busy about so many things, only one thing is important.”  In Advent, that one thing, is preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus into our hearts, to live Jesus’ way of life, and to prepare for the final coming of Jesus at the end of time. 

     This Advent, let us become less concerned about so many “things” and center in on the real meaning of the Season.
     Sr. Barbara Woeste, OSB

Advent: the season of rich promise

     Advent, from the Latin adventus, coming, is a joyous season in the church year. The long, dark winter nights are conducive to silence and reflection. The liturgy is rich in symbolism and heavy with meaning. Two of my favorite antiphons coming at the end of Advent beautifully express the sense of the season. On December 21 at morning prayer the liturgy consoles and assures us with the promise, “Do not be afraid; in five days our Savior will appear.” You can count on it! I have always loved that antiphon and each year I look forward to praying it. It expresses the hope and expectation that is characteristic of Advent. It stirs in me memories of the excitement I felt as a child counting the days for Santa to come. At morning prayer on December 24 we pray “Today you will know that the Savior is coming and in the morning you will see the glory of God.” Today is translated from the Latin, hodie, which means this day, in the present, now. This day you will know; in the morning you will see. As I write an inner voice responds, “I can hardly wait!”             

     Be watchful, be alert, be prepared. Rejoice, Jesus is coming. The church places this heightened language on our lips during Advent as we await the threefold comings of Jesus Christ that Christmas celebrates: his birth at Bethlehem, his coming in glory at the end of time and his presence among us now. Perhaps the excitement and anticipation leading to the Christmases of my childhood were preparing me for a richer Advent today and for the truly amazing gift that Christmas proclaims and celebrates.

                                 Sr. Justina Franxman, OSB