A Season of Hopeful Waiting

We begin another Liturgical Year with the celebration of the First Sunday of Advent. Advent simply, in layman's term, ushers the most-awaited season of Christmas. But more meaningfully, Advent poses for us a blessed season of waiting.

To wait for something or for someone is a disposition of hope, of sheer trust. And I think we celebrate it right, to begin the new liturgical year in this disposition. Jesus in the Gospels asks His disciples to hold fast and to wait for the final hour. We can say then that a Christian's life is a prolonged celebration of Advent, of hopeful waiting to be reunited to God, our Source, our End.

Like this monk (in the picture) who patiently 'waits' for the Lord's coming to him in prayer and contemplation, may we, too, truly and joyfully wait for the coming of the Savior, our One and True Joy.