Ready, Set, GO! Advent is upon us and you are probably still getting over your friends-giving and other family gatherings. It has been a few years of working in ministry that I have felt like I am never ready for Advent or Christmas. The over a decades worth of time that I have spent getting kids and families excited for this blest season and I cannot seem to muster enough for myself.
I am praying for better this year. Perhaps it is age, being in a new relationship, new call story, etc… I am leaning on FAITH in self and the Holy Spirt of this season of anticipation to get me ready for what is to come.
"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit." --E.E. Cummings
I am not trying to be my own savior but I am saying that it is important to put the mask on myself before I try to save anyone else and in this sense, the “saving” I plan to do is renewing myself and others for the season of waiting in anticipation for the yet to be, the perhaps it will come, the I really want… It just makes good sense to move in this direction as it gets us all ready for the new year and the reset that the whole world will experience.
I have been feeling a call to retreat for peace and serenity and so I went to a mini-women’s retreat recently for an evening fellowship, worship and prayer. A young women was offering her talk about the fruits of the spirit, mentioned a prayer that she said for two year in order to figure out her call by Cardinal Mercier. It is called a Prayer to the Holy Spirit. I was struck by the directness that I read and just how practical and commonsensical it was as well. Now I found some problematic pieces here for sure, but I can still appreciate some parts of the Catholic tradition. You know a broken clock is right at least twice a day, it has been said.
I commend this pray to you this season and beyond as you have faith in yourself for the season of Advent is upon us. Ready or Not.