- Advent teaches us to Watch … to Watch!
“It’s been a long year of waiting: waiting to determine the depth of the danger, waiting for a sense of how long, waiting for clear directions as to what to do next.
For some, the waiting has been especially excruciating waiting and hoping that our loved one will survive — for some families, that hope crashed into grief.
Many have lost hope that their jobs will ever return and are desperate for some sense of what to do next.
Winter is beginning, the COVID 19 vaccine is here, and we long for a return to normal, and that, hopeful, we will not face another major crisis in the near future.
Yes, the waiting has been painful and distressing. But, for many of us, this pandemic Advent also been a time of change and conversion: We’ve grown closer to our families. We have a new appreciation of those who work hard — and mostly unnoticed — to keep open the services we need to function. We’ve realized that God has raised up many saints in our midst, courageous and brave prophets clad in PPE. And we understand as we’ve never understood before how much we need one another and can’t wait to re-connect with family and neighbors and friends and classmates live, in person, not on a screen via Zoom or Skype. This year of 2020 has been one long Advent — and it’s not over. But it has been an Advent of discovery, of awareness, of insight; an Advent for seeing with new hearts and spirits God in our midst.
The late Father Henri Nouwen wrote that our lives are a continuing Advent, an Advent in which “the Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent. Life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.”
Waiting is often the cost of love: in waiting we realize our powerlessness; we realize our deepest hopes and wants, we realize the gift of those we love in our lives. As we struggle through this especially difficult Advent of 2020, may we open our homes and hearts to the light of God’s compassion and peace in these dark, difficult days.” [Connections, December 2020]
Today take some time to enjoy Waiting, Waiting for the Lord, who “… is coming, always coming.”
May God Be Praised!
COVID PANDEMIC PRAYER
You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to You during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession. In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” strength to the first responders, compassion and endurance to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders. End this coronavirus scourge. Send Your light to guide me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me the solace of Your eternal love today. Amen.
[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic Adopted by Dcn. George Kelly]
No comments:
Post a Comment