Advent & Being Present

“Waiting for the Lord does not bring us out of history; it involves us with it since we are hoping for the God who has come and is in our midst. Such hope is ambitious but it is worthwhile. It will help us see what is inconsistent in our behavior, what is deceptive and underhanded in out personal lives but also what is hopeful in our efforts to defend life and justice.”
~ Gustavo Guitiérrez, Sharing the Word through the Liturgical Year  

“…Advent is a threshold season, a liminal place in the calendar, an in between time of preparation and expectation. Thresholds offer a heady mix of possibility and peril. They are wildly unpredictable, they stir up questions, they cause us to live with uncertainty, they compel us to develop the ability to attend to the present even as we discern the future. Ultimately, they are places of initiation, taking us deeper into God and into the person God has created us to be…To follow God does not mean traveling with certainty about where God will lead us. Rather, following God propels us to be present in the place where we are, for this is the very place where God shows up.”
~ Jan L. Richardson (Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas, “Door Seven: A Way in the Wilderness”)