Have you ever felt like time was your enemy. That’s my reality this week. I know time is
priceless and we each are allotted the same 24 hours each day but I’m feeling
pressured by the “musts” on my “to-do-list”, the “coulds” that I really want to
do, and the reality of the limits of time as I perceive it. I keep whispering to myself that time is my
friend but today I wasn’t for believing it..
With this oppressive feeling of time lingering in my heart,
I watched Sr. Marie Angela Presenza prepare the center for Advent and I began
to feel a certain excitement. Her decorations and her simple pondering filled
me with a calm certainty that this is a special time. Ed Hayes in A Pilgrims
Almanac (1989, p. 187) reminds us that Advent is a time to be aware that in the
very busy preparation for Christmas (or completing our “to-do-list”) Christ is
waiting to be reborn in the Bethlehem
of our homes and our daily lives. He
advises us to take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery
that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present each and every
day.
Advent and time go hand in hand. Advent is about waiting in expectation. It's about
preparing our hearts. It's about taking time, slowing down, being awake. But most of all it's about remembering with gratitude, remembering the ways God has been born to me today and yesterday and tomorrow. Last night there was an unbelievable moon that we watched together; it made me forget about the frantic anxiety of "not enough time." Sunday I spent the day with some friends in a fun but profound discussion about life that nourished me to the core. In moments like that, time is not pressured; it truly is my friend and enables the Christ within to be born again. In moments like that there is no past or future but only present--the REAL PRESENT that warms our heart, the real present that comes each moment if we can remain empty and aware. Staying empty when we are stressed by time is essential. Only if we are empty can we wait in expectation for God to fill us with the beauty and gift of ordinary time. And only if we're aware can we remember and really notice with gratitude the surprises that time can bring. Time is our friend if we have the right attitude. Ange's decorating helped me to remember that.
Tomorrow as our first Advent retreat begins, I choose to make peace with time. How about you?.
preparing our hearts. It's about taking time, slowing down, being awake. But most of all it's about remembering with gratitude, remembering the ways God has been born to me today and yesterday and tomorrow. Last night there was an unbelievable moon that we watched together; it made me forget about the frantic anxiety of "not enough time." Sunday I spent the day with some friends in a fun but profound discussion about life that nourished me to the core. In moments like that, time is not pressured; it truly is my friend and enables the Christ within to be born again. In moments like that there is no past or future but only present--the REAL PRESENT that warms our heart, the real present that comes each moment if we can remain empty and aware. Staying empty when we are stressed by time is essential. Only if we are empty can we wait in expectation for God to fill us with the beauty and gift of ordinary time. And only if we're aware can we remember and really notice with gratitude the surprises that time can bring. Time is our friend if we have the right attitude. Ange's decorating helped me to remember that.
Tomorrow as our first Advent retreat begins, I choose to make peace with time. How about you?.
Very fine and thought-provoking reflection! And I love the collage of photos--can you teach me how to do that?
ReplyDelete