Advent

For the last seventeen years of my life, I was under the impression that The Church celebrated Advent, lit Advent candles, and used Advent calendars for the sole purpose counting down the four weeks before Christmas- so everyone knew how much time they had left to get my Christmas present. A couple weeks ago, a preist at my school gave a homily about the darkness that the Jews were living in while they waited for their savior, and how deep and attentive their waiting was. Now, I had been 'celebrating' Advent with my family for seventeen years and not once did I think of it like that. Advent is all about waiting, and once I understood that, my Advent came alive with meaning. When the priest spoke of different times in his life that he waited for things, my mind was flooded with memories of my scrawny, brace-faced, eighth grade self sitting next to the phone waiting for Adam Morello to call me. I stared at that phone like I was expecting it to turn into gold; every one of my senses was suddenly hyper-sensitive, every fiber of my being was willing the phone to ring, and oh the wrath that awaited any one of my family members should they attempt to make a call! I laugh at myself now as I remember it, but at the time I'm sure it was incredibly important to me that he called. That's the kind of anticipation we should all experience during Advent while we're waiting for Christ, only even more! Because, 1) Jesus's presence is exponentially more important to the world than Mr. Morello's attention was to me, and 2) unlike when I waited for Adam, we are waiting with a purpose and a hope. We don't have to question or be uncertain about the Man we're waiting on because we can be sure that He will come through for us because, well... He's God and He loves us too much to leave us sitting there until our mothers tell us to go to sleep (oops I got my stories mixed up...).

2 more days until Christmas!! I'm so bloody excited!! Travel safe, ladies! God bless you and your families.

Keep it real,

Emily