Next Sunday, December 2nd we once again enter into the beautiful season of Advent, a time of “waiting” in anticipation of the celebration of Christmas. The focus of Advent-waiting also corresponds with the natural season of winter, that time of the year when Earth slows its rhythms moving into a phase of rest, in order that new life can be celebrated in the Spring. Growth, personal and natural, celebration and joy depend first of all on waiting.

Yet already our world, friends, the stores and perhaps we are rushing into Christmas bypassing the waiting and anticipatory time. Over the past few years that trend of bypassing the season and its meaning has spread rapidly, sadly sometimes even in our churches, forgetful of the essential significance of a time of preparation as we reflect anew at Christmas on the centrality of Christ’s incarnation.

Phyllis Zagano, in her 2016 book, The Light of the World: Daily Meditations for Advent and Christmas, says, “Advent is the time for hope in promises, for hope and trust in the promise that Christ is coming, to our homes and lives, to our hearts and minds. Of course, he is already here. But there is a special sense of waiting, quietly, in the dark, for Christ in Christmas to enlighten us.”

For this enlightening to happen, for a true celebration of Christmas, we too are called to wait quietly, something that is increasingly hard for us to do in our busy lives and times. All the more important then to put aside some special time for quietness before we move into the frenetic activity that has more recently come to mark Christmas. If you live nearby you may find one of our Advent retreat opportunities, listed at the end of this newsletter, and on our website, helpful.
Let us this year promise ourselves some time of quiet reflection. In the lovely words of Methodist minister, Jan Richardson, “Let us tell it (Advent) as a story about darkness giving birth to light, about seemingly endless waiting, and about that which lies at the end of all our waiting. Darkness can become the tending place in which our longings for healing, justice, and peace grow and come to birth.”

The Villa Team wish all of our friends celebrating Advent and others embracing the season of Winter a time of deep peace and reflection.

Srs. Linda, Mary, Teresa, Christine and Nettie