Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Quote book -- First Sunday of Advent

"My mother had this little idiosyncrasy of always wanting to see how the book ended.  When she began to read, she would always read the end, and then she would diligently go back to the beginning and read the book through.It used to amuse me as a child, and I started to do the same thing because you always like to do what your mother does.  

We want to see how it is going to turn out.  And we do know.  We know what is at the end of the path.  And so, if we die of anticipation, we should be dying of joy, dear sisters.  When we are not anticipating rightly because we are not going firmly forward on the path, is it not because we are anticipating lesser things?  I listed some of them here: What do we anticipate?  Do we waste our energy sometimes on anticipating how it is going to turn out?  We think: things are going to get worse and worse, and I don't think I can do this, and I don't think I can make that much effort, and maybe it won't come out right anyway, and I'd better not do it at all because maybe I can't -- and so I excuse myself from effort.

This is what we do.  We anticipate the wrong things.  Why do we not anticipate the best things?  Because even in the things that cause us the most suffering, God always has in mind something wonderful for which we need to be purified by suffering.  And so we know where the path ends." -- Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. in "Come Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting" 

Worth the wait

One of these days I need to sit down and write a proper reflection on Advent. For now, though, with preparations for our inaugural Kenosis retreat in full swing, I leave you with the words of Pope Benedict XVI on Advent as a season of waiting.