Dear Friends,
Advent is my favorite of seasons and vanishingly brief. On Sunday, I lit the first candle in my Advent wreath. On Monday morning, I began with a stack of my favorite books of Adventmeditations, mostly ones that offer a poem and related reflection each day, one that uses the first part of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis to reflect on the season.
Since then, let’s just say my Advent observance has been . . . spotty. I have dipped into the poetry, said brief morning prayers, and looked for the light of Christ each day. And you know what? That is enough. More than enough.
For Advent is a season of waiting, a time of some fasting (good luck with that in this season!) before the Christmas feast. But Advent is here whatever we do; Christ has come, is coming, will come again no matter what. God is present and faithful even when we are . . . the opposite.
So, please don’t let Advent be another “to do” on your already very long list; perhaps allow it to be a place of rest when you can glimpse it, catch its light, for a moment or two each day, whether in a beautiful hymn at church, the one night you manage to light the Advent wreath, the flash of the Holy that shines through in the midst of an insane day. For, in this season, we celebrate Emmanuel—the God who is WITH us, even when we are busy, overburdened, distracted.
The Bright Field, R. S. Thomas
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
That seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
See you in Church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+