Living with the sisters, as well as having the beautiful liturgist, Michelle, in community has helped me to better understand and appreciate this beautiful time of Advent. The beginning of the season we decorated for Advent, later for Christmas, but I was reminded of my own home, where we did the same thing. we were that house. The one that still had their decorations up for 3 weeks to a month after Christmas, and we always had to justify why it was exactly that they went up so late, and came down so late....it's liturgical, duh! haha Either way, I felt both in the environment of our house, as well as in our time together and prayer a sense of waiting. Not just waiting, but preparing for the coming of Christ.
I am at home, and went back to my home parish Our Lady of Lourdes (ironically Marian, if you know me...). Today, Father Dominic received, in his pick up truck, a small statue of the face of Mary from the Angel Gabriel. In him bringing up Mary and the need to be Mary, I was reminded of our need to be "pregnant." Not just waiting, but preparing. When you find out that you are going to have a child, you don't sit around for 9 months just waiting. It takes time to prepare your life for what it means to allow/bring that child into the world! This is what we are doing now. I felt particularly challenged to do that in a New York City Advent.
As I mentioned in my last post, the entries of this blog have become fewer and fewer. That is a direct reflection of what my life has been in the last few weeks. Amidst the spiritual preparation for the birth of Christ, I was responsible, since October, with the obtaining and distributing of Christmas presents for all of the children of our clients of Cabrini Immigrant Services. This sounded a lot easier then than it ended up being, especially in the last week. BUT in lieu of my desire to board my plane on Friday, I had to kick it into high gear to ensure being prepared to leave. This was quite exhaustive, and to be very honest this month was the most exhausting yet for ministry, community, and solitude! Thankfully I have awesome support here! You're probably wondering what this has to do with preparing for Christ...that was my question too!
I found, though this was my busiest Avdent, just how crucial it was to find 'peace' in myself and the world around me. The reading for the 4th Sunday from Advent was from Micah. The prophet talks about the coming ruler from lowly origins in Bethlhem...the reading concludes with the four words, fit to be the title of this post: He shall be peace (Micah 5:1-4a). That is the answer. The reason that I even survived a NYC Advent was the great sense of peace that set in, knowing of the coming of Jesus. Thanks be to God for contradicting the chaos of my present reality, as well as the chaos and darkness of the world when Christ was born.
I have been rambling now, and will post this, un poquito atrasado, as my only December post after promising more than 3 posts for this month! Well, there is always the new year! :) Merry CHRISTmas!
