Timing

Advent always comes at the wrong time of year.

The season of Advent is the start of the Church year, and it’s a time to quiet our souls and prepare our hearts for Christmas. Advent calls us to contemplation and quiet, humble expectancy. During Advent, we hear the prophets reminding us to “beat our swords into plowshares,” to “be full of the knowledge of God,” and to “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” In this season, we should be attending to the ways of peace and justice to which we are called.

Instead, I inevitably find myself scrambling to keep up with the demands of every day during Advent. It’s the busiest time of the semester where I teach, with tests and papers due, final rehearsals for Christmas concerts crowding my evenings, grading filling my days, and extra meetings piled on top of everything else. At home, there are special gatherings of friends and family to squeeze in, and school events to schedule. Over the airwaves, we’re reminded to shop, shop, shop, and spend hours we don’t have decorating so that our home is picture-perfect.

Every year, I look forward to the lovely season of Advent, and then I face the frustration of longing for quiet and contemplation while being caught in the whirlwind of the end of the semester. Not only do I face frustration, but I also feel as though I am “failing” Advent by not setting aside time for the inner work and preparation that belongs in this season.

I have found, however, that there is great wisdom in the alternation of seasons in the Church year, even if they seem challenging at first. Maybe it’s important that Advent begins in the busiest time of the year. Maybe it’s during this very busiest time that we need the reminder that quiet and contemplation are important. And maybe “success” in Advent is not achieving perfect meditation for hours each day and the elimination of all distractions, but instead a kindling of our desire for time to quiet our hearts and our spirits. Advent may be most needed and most helpful precisely when it’s most difficult… right now.

Let us pray: Loving God, we confess that we are busy and distracted. Yet we long for time to prepare for the coming of your Son. Calm our troubled schedules and supply us with the quiet moments we need. Fill us with trust that this is enough. Amen.

-Heather Josselyn Cranson