Advent is a season of waiting. We wait, and the waiting itself makes an empty place within for God to inhabit. This waiting is spurred on by a poignant honesty that God is not fully present in our lives and that we can’t think our way to God or force God’s arrival.
T.S. Eliot captured this Advent spirit in a passage from his great poem, “The Four Quartets.” He wrote:
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope.
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without love,
for love would be love of the wrong thing. There is yet faith,
but the faith and love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought.
So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness the dancing.
This coming Advent, St. Paul’s is offering three ways to engage in open, still, Advent waiting:
First, there is the Julian Quiet Day on December 6th from 10 to 4 p.m. at Good Shepherd Church, led by our interim associate rector, the Rev. Robert Fruehwirth. This day is almost fully subscribed; please write to Robert at robert@stpaulscary.org to see if places remain.
Second, Robert+ is also going to offer a Sunday Forum, Stillness Dancing, on December 14th from 10:20 – 11 a.m. in the Chapel. In the midst of a busy holiday season, we will enjoy a period of contemplative silence, listening, and attention for God’s speaking in our lives, returning to the poetry of T.S. Eliot.
Finally, we are going to have Wednesday Eucharists this year at both noon and 7 p.m (the former in the church, the latter in the chapel). At each of the Eucharists, we will spend time praying together with the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, in structured listening for how God is speaking in us, and in each other, as we approach the Holy Incarnation of Jesus.
Please join us in this season of Advent.