SILENCE IN ADVENT

 

Advent is a season for hoping, waiting, and silence. It is no coincidence that it falls in winter, which in many parts of the world can be harsh. It is the time when nature digs in and is silent in growth. When I was at our Abbey in Connecticut, I found the winters difficult, not so much for the cold, as for the lack of green.  Here in the Pacific Northwest  we have green all year, even though our winters can be quite wet.

This Advent in anticipation of the coming of our Lord, we shall focus on SILENCE. While the world seemingly spins out of control, Advent invites us to slow down and listen for the still small voice of God. It calls us to be still. 

Even before Thanksgiving this year, Christmas decor was on the market.  The push for Christmas celebration seems to get earlier and earlier by the year. Which perhaps says something of a culture which seeks more than it understands or knows for a desire for the spiritual. 

Many Catholics don’t realize the Christmas season does not start until Christmas Eve Masses. Most do not know that Christmas Day lasts 8 days (an octave). Or that the Christmas season lasts until the Baptism of the Lord, and for some, until the Presentation of the Lord, February 2. 

This season of waiting in silent expectation through prayer is essential for being spiritually prepared to fully live the joy of Christ's coming into our hearts, into our world. The answer to being overwhelmed and exhausted from the materialistic overload is the one Advent offers to us. It is to choose silence. This is how we prepare our souls for Christmas. We must seek silence with our whole heartsfor it is in silence that we encounter the Living God.

As the Church, through the Liturgy, invites us into the silence of waiting, may we be aware of the precious, holy moments presented to us.

Elijah found God not in the strong winds, nor earthquakes, nor fire, but in the silence (1 Kings 19:11-12).

(Painting Jyoti Sahi- India)