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Have you ever been through a period so dizzying in its busyness and changing schedules that you wake in the morning and think, “Where am I? What day is it? Do I have to get up now?” It’s been like that lately.
Yesterday I awoke with those questions and remembered that we’d come home late the night before after giving a presentation on the Advent/Christmas season in a university chaplaincy. It was a blessed evening and some images of the people we met now floated through my mind.
Usually I rise long before our 7:30 a.m. hour of adoration, but yesterday morning, I lay lazily in bed, allowing other images to emerge.
As I write this, we haven’t yet entered Advent, but it will be a full season. It is a time to prepare our hearts to receive Christ in a deeper way, and so our prayer/poustinia rooms and cabins will be full.
We will welcome Franciscan friars and sisters, an artist and his beautiful wife bringing us a statue he created of a Madonna and Child, a young layman working in sensitive areas for the Church, two consecrated virgins travelling from different parts of the country and a couple of lay people we’ve not yet met.
Special events abound in this season: a lectio divina* gathering that will be expanded this month, Christmas concerts, a parish reflection on St. Lucy and the gift of light, our open Mass centering on the coming of Christ, the welcoming of a rosary group and an ecumenical prayer group to our home, the days of prayer and reflection in our Middlesbrough Cathedral as we gather around the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and beg her for the renewal of England and the Church—not to mention making our Advent wreath from local greens and berries, and later decorating our house for Christmas, practising Advent and Christmas music, making cards and sending out letters.
I must admit that just thinking about all that lies ahead in one short month, I was tempted to burrow into my covers.
But then other images began to beckon: the Christ Child radiating peace, hope, and beauty; the three great men from another land who journeyed over dark and dangerous paths just to adore and bring their finest treasures to this Divine Child; the warm breath of the animals, and the stillness and love suffusing that cave, as all were captivated by the tender beauty and promise of this little One.
This is what lies ahead—not just work and fatigue, but drawing near to the Source of our joy.
And what of our lives? What images fill our hearts? Do they spring from fear of the unknown, fear that God won’t protect or care for us, fear that we’ll fail?
Can we replace those images with the “sight” of the Good Shepherd or the “Prodigal Father” or God himself coming to us as a Babe, to be with us and to save us?
We know not what joys and sorrows, sacrifices and gifts await us, but they all lead ultimately to the fulfilment of seeing His beautiful Face. That’s reason enough to jump out of that cozy bed and embrace the day!
*A way of praying with Scripture
