Mary DeTurris Poust - Waiting in Joyful Hope: Daily Reflections for Advent and Christmas, 2017-18

Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert Harren, J.C.L., Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur: Most Reverend Donald J. Kettler, J.C.L., Bishop of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. March 16, 2017.

Cover design by Monica Bokinskie. Cover photo Thinkstock.

The English translation Lord, I am not worthy from The Roman Missal 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from the English translation of The Roman Missal, Third Edition 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL). All rights reserved.

Daily Scripture excerpts in this work are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States. Copyright 2001, 1998, 1997, 1992, 1986, and 1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means and without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

2017 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microlm, microche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

ISSN: 1550-803X
ISBN: 978-0-8146-4689-2 978-0-8146-4734-9 (ebook)

Contents

Introduction

Ill admit right up front that for most of my life I considered myself a Lent person more than an Advent person. I was more comfortable in the desert than in the midst of party preparations. But slowly, slowly, as I aged, I began to get Advent, which really is a desert experience of a very different kind. Unlike Lent, where the desert is obvious and clear, Advent beckons us to seek out a hidden desert, our interior desert, the dry places in our spiritual lives that need to be worked out and made lush before the coming of Jesus Christboth in celebration on Christmas Day and again at the end of all time.

As we begin our journey toward Christmas, we have to be careful not to pay too much attention to the flashy decorations and nostalgic carols that threaten to rob us of this waiting time and rush us into a moment that is not yet here. We do that through the rhythm of Advent, a season that challenges us to slow down even as the drumbeat of commercial Christmas pounds out its Hurry! Hurry! warning. This is a time of silence and darkness, waiting and watching, surrender and trust.

The flickering candles of the Advent wreath burn through the enveloping blackness of early December evenings to remind us week by week that the dark will never overcome us. Light is comingon Christmas and for all timebut we must be patient. This is the season of waiting, a long pregnant pause, full of expectant joy, much like a mother waiting for labor to begin, much like Mary waiting for the arrival of her Son. We, too, wait, perhaps not so patiently but through prayer and silence, growing more ripe each day, more ready for what is to come, who is to come.

As we walk this path through Advent, into Christmas, and right out the other side back toward Ordinary Time, we do not travel alone. We walk with fellow travelers who surround us, sometimes physically when we gather at church or around the dinner table for a meal, sometimes virtually as we talk and pray together through social media or email or texting, and sometimes invisibly from the other side, the communion of saints that carries us along in and out of season through prayer and intercession.

In the crisp, cold air of winter we will feel a warm glow burning stronger and stronger inside, filling our desert spaces with light and life, until our hearts cry out, Maranatha, O Lord, come! And then there will be celebration for the One who comes into the world to save it, the incarnation that makes us gasp in wonder and bow in humility. Jesus Christ is born, giving us reason to sing with joy to the world, a feast that doesnt last a day but has a season all to itself, taking us through the octave of Christmas, the feast of the Holy Family, the solemnity of Mary, saints feast days, the Epiphany, and, finally, the Baptism of our Lord.

What a whirlwind of spiritual anticipation and celebration is in store for us! Let us begin, slowly, silently at first, until we can contain ourselves no longer. O come, O come, Emmanuel...