A few years ago, I struggled with a fairly significant depression. Rather than cover it up or wrestle with it, I actually was able to claim some peace in it. It gave me a way to be still, to quiet my speed, a way to safely wait.
In the midst of this, I fell in love with Advent.

From ... Arjun
advent
a coming into place, view, or being; arrival
from the Latin Adventus, sc. Redemptoris, "the coming of the Saviour"
marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing
On of my fav progressive thinkers, Joan Chittister, in a piece entitled Advent speaks to the power of smallness captures what I love so much about Advent:
Advent starts in 3 days - I can feel the anticipation in my soul. Whether you experience this waiting via Online (Virtual) Advent Calendars or in some other discipline, I wish for you a blessed season of waiting !Advent is about the spirituality of emptiness, of enough-ness, of stripped-down fullness of soul. Advent points to the essentials of life; commercial Christmas points to its superfluities.
The two great liturgical seasons of the church year, Advent and Lent, are about very different things. Advent is not "a little Lent." Advent is not a penitential period. Advent comes to trigger consciousness, not to provoke our consciences.
The Talmud teaches that every person should wear a jacket with two pockets. In the one pocket, the rabbis say, there should be a note that reads, "I am a worm and not completely human." And in the second pocket, the rabbis say, the note must read, "For me the universe was made."
The story is clear: The function of Lent is to remind us who we are--and who we are not. The function of Advent, on the other hand, is to remind us who God is and who we are meant to be, as well. Advent is about the riches of emptiness.
We had a service on sunday night exploring the theme of wait. i think that at culture that demands immediacy and thinks of waiting as passivity does not respond well to one who calls for waiting.. And we used a great video that Vaux produced called 'wait'.
Posted by: Ben Edson | Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 03:24 AM
thank you for this bob - i am liturgically bereft, raised without any knowledge of the calendar and have celebrated advent for the past couple of years, but really didn't understand it.
this helped so much.
i too feel the anticipation this year. thank you.
Posted by: bobbie | Sunday, November 26, 2006 at 04:46 PM