Yearning for Advent...

Today - at our Wednesday midday Eucharist - a few of us gathered informally to listen to the Psalm for today and share Holy Communion.  We spoke of yearning for Advent - and that's the perfect word. Yearning.  Aching inwardly for the quiet and intense watching and waiting that is at the heart of this season. 

Sure, there is Christ the King Sunday and Thanksgiving to embrace - and they are both sweet and meaning-filled - and a whole lot of pre-Christmas bullshit to ignore and block out, too.  But, all the while, our souls seem to be aching for the quiet solitude of Advent.  For the first time in decades my heart feels ready for this strange season of silence and surprise.

Then I read Fr. Richard Rohr's reflection for today and man did it resonate.  He writes:

God always entices us through love. Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God  loves you so that you can change. What  empowers change, what makes you desirous of change, is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love  that becomes the engine of change. If the mystics say that one way, they say it  a thousand ways. But because most of our common religion has not been at the mystical level, we’ve been given an inferior message—that God loves me when I change (moralism).

What that does is put it back on you. You’re back to “navel-gazing,” and you never succeed at that level. You  are never holy enough, pure enough, refined enough, or loving enough. Whereas, when you fall into God’s mercy,  when you fall into God’s great generosity, you find, seemingly from nowhere,  this capacity to change. No one is more surprised than you are. You know it is  a gift.

This upside-down truth is coming towards us in spades as we move towards Advent. No wonder the mystics among us are yearning...

On another front, as we prepare for our Thanksgiving Eve gig of American music and poetry, I was delighted to rewatch brother Steven Colbert celebrate the healing nature of singing together in community. 

At the end of the show, Michael Stipe suggests they sing together - so Brian Eno comes back out - and they sing, "Lean On Me."  We'll be doing something similar on Wednesday, November 23rd @ 7:30 pm.  Lots of GREAT musicians and friends singing together to reinforce how much we NEED to lean on one another.