The Days of Our Waiting – Advent 2010

I find myself very taken with these ideas taken from Judy Cannato’s lovely book Field of Compassion:

One way to speak of the Christian story is to say that God is always doing something more. Incomprehensible holy mystery is always giving more, revealing more communicating more. The only limit to that giving has been creation’s capacity to receive. A look back over the history of creation suggests that as our species has continued to evolve, our capacity to recognize and respond to the holy has grown. …

God’s self-communication is always “incomplete.” It is always held back, in a sense, not because of God’s lack of desire to give – but because we cannot possibly hold all that God has to offer. … As we evolve and continue to become more conscious, whether individually or collectively, our capacity to receive deepens, so that we are able to hold more and more of the sacred self-offering.

I hope to keep these words before me during the days of Advent – the days our waiting readies us for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

Waiting – as a practice of prayer – differs from other waiting times like standing in line, waiting for the mail to come, waiting for the timer on the microwave to ring.

Waiting – as a practice of prayer – can be daily moments of quiet sitting with the intention of deepening our capacity to receive God’s giving, revealing to me and us.

Waiting –as a practice of prayer – can be daily moments of quiet sitting with the expressed hope that I/we will be “able to hold more and more of the sacred self-offering.”

Waiting – as a practice of prayer – readies us to know when the providence of God appears in the midst of our daily lives – always in the most unexpected places (like a stable) and at the most inconvenient of times (during an arduous journey not of my/our own choosing).

Happy Advent! The Sisters of Providence will be with you as we wait together for the revelation of God’s self in our midst.

Sister Denise Wilkinson, SP
General Superior