We Wait in Joyful Hope

Today begins our season of waiting. Today begins a time of preparation with purity, sobriety and humility. Today is the dawn of a new liturgical year.

It's the beginning of Advent, one of my favourite seasons in the Church calendar. I'm not sure it should be- after all, the joyous seasons of Christmas and Easter are the ones I really ought to look forward to. But there's something so beautiful about the season of Advent.

It's a season of eager anticipation, of joyful hope, of penitence mingled with dormant exultation. Our Lord is coming! In just 23 short days, our Saviour will come to fill our hearts with renewed fervour and love. It's our duty and our honour to prepare for His coming with patience and piety.

This year, I want my Advent to be different.

I don't want it to be Christmas- after the 25th, there are twelve days of joy and fasting with which to celebrate. But Advent isn't a time for celebration. It's a time for simplicity and sobriety, a time to purify our hearts and dispel from them all which isn't fit for our King. And it most definitely isn't Christmas yet.

In our secular world, Christmas beings the day after Thanksgiving (or earlier for some!). The carols are blasted, the world festooned with decorations, and a 'Merry Christmas' wished to one and all before Advent has even begun.

We live in a culture of NOW. Selfishness, impatience and 'YOLO' have taken precedence over the softly whispered 'wait' of the Church's teachings. We've lost nearly all concept of denying ourselves pleasure, of waiting for the right time. But the Church tells us:

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

In the frenzy and flurry of pre-Christmas consumerism, the excited buzz of Santa and candycanes, the sparkling glory of a decorated tree- in all that the world tells us- we lose something.

We lose that moment of doubt and fear. That period of anxious hope that God will fulfil His promises to us. We lose that feeling of unworthiness, of imperfection, and we forget that until the Church sings that jubilant 'Joy to the World', the time of celebration has not yet begun. In a modern-day Advent there is no time to repent, no time to prepare. Until we empty ourselves of the spirit of the world, and focus only on God's unconditional love, we'll never truly be prepared for His coming.

These four weeks of humility are one of the most needful periods of our lives. Through them we learn patience and selflessness. We learn that good things will come, but they take time. 

I want to take that time to prepare. I don't want my Advent to be a festival or celebration. I don't want to neglect that rich, fruitful preparation that is essential in devotion.

Yes, we wait in joyful hope.

But we wait.

We wait because JESUS is worth the wait.

He's worth turning off the Christmas carols for, and listening to in the silence of our hearts. He's worth holding off decorating the tree and the fireplace for, and focusing on adorning our souls for. He's worth that extra bit of prayer, those few moments of self-denial. 

He's worth waiting for.

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, as we prepare to receive with joy Your only-begotten son; that we may serve you with purity, humility and sobriety during this season of waiting. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

AMDG

In this season of penitence and preparation, the blog, along with the Church, is purple.