The Advent Desert

"The desert is not a place of isolation, but one of encounter."

~ Andre Neher, 1988

As my calendar year of Patient Trust draws to a close, it is appropriate to also begin the new liturgical year with a posture of patient waiting during Advent. The below Advent reflection speaks to the posture and attitude (and work) of the Advent desert we may experience. Personally, I’d mush rather experience a warm and fuzzy Advent season. But, it is in the hard desert places where our hearts are open to prepare the way of the Lord to enter more fully into our lives in deeper ways. This is the patient trust I hope to be attentive and open to this Advent season.

“…From John the Baptist we learn the desert is a place for cleansing, for conversion, for fasting, for silence, for self-discovery, and ultimately for healing. It is a place to let go of our multiple earthly attachments, making room for the Lord by allowing God to enter fully into the innermost of our lives, yes, of our broken lives in utter need of his compassion and healing. 

The desert is also the place for pursuing the ‘patient waiting’ attitude that God demands from each of us. This patient waiting attitude is similar in many ways to that of ‘patient endurance’ counseled by the Apostle Paul. It demands true patience, and it also means hard work. This patient waiting attitude is inspired by deep faith and trust in God, and is the work of constant prayer under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. During this time of patiently waiting for the Lord’s arrival, he asks from each of us complete trust and openness to his particular designs for our lives, complete and total cooperation with that which he wishes to accomplish in us. When Christmas, the Lord’s day, arrives, we shall then discover the truth of God’s prophetic words: ‘The wilderness and the parched land (of our hearts) will exult; the Arabah (desert) will rejoice and bloom.’”

Taken from: Monastery Journey to Christmas
By Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

Love and Live the Questions

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart

And try to love the questions themselves

Like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue

Do not seek for the answers that cannot be given

For you would not be able to live them

And the point is to live everything

Live the questions now

And perhaps without knowing it

You will live along some day into the answers

~ Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Letters to a Young Poet

Fresh Vision

These past few months during the church season of Ordinary Time I have been using the book At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time by Sarah Arthur. You can read more about the book…HERE. The passages of poetry, prayers, fiction, and scripture have been a perfect fit. I have been challenged on the idea of “slow reading,” which is especially necessary when reading poetry. I will be writing more about that soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a poem and a prayer from the book that resonated with me this week. These passages from the section titled “Fresh Vision” are encouraging as I continue to embrace this year of “Patient Trust”.

Morning Reflections

Enuma Okoro

What is this unfolding, this slow-

going unraveling of gift held

in hands open

to the wonder and enchantment of it all?

What is this growing, this rare

showing, like blossoming

of purple spotted forests

by roadsides grown weary with winter months?

Seasons affected, routinely disordered

by playful disturbances of divine glee

weaving through limbs with

sharpened shards of mirrored light,

cutting dark spaces, interlacing creation,

commanding life with whimsical delight.

What is this breaking, this hopeful

re-making, shifting stones, addressing dry bones,

dizzying me with blessings,

intercepting my grieving

and raising the dead all around me?

Lord, purge our eyes to see

Lord, purge our eyes to see

Within the seed a tree

Within the glowing egg a bird,

Within the shroud a butterfly:

Till taught by such, we see

Beyond all creatures Thee;

And hearken for Thy tender word,

And hear it, “Fear not: it is I.”

~ Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Holy Saturday & Patient Trust

This morning I began my Holy Saturday by reading the below reflection from Fr. James Martin, SJ., posted on his Facebook page. I thought it was timely and appropriate for my year of Patient Trust. A reminder that patient trust is also active waiting in hope!

Most of our lives are spent in Holy Saturday. In other words, most of our days are not filled with the unbearable pain of a Good Friday. Nor are they suffused with the unbelievable joy of an Easter. Some days are indeed times of great pain and some are of great joy, but most are…in between. Most are, in fact, times of waiting, much as the disciples waited during Holy Saturday. We’re waiting. Waiting to get into a good school. Waiting to meet the right person. Waiting to get pregnant. Waiting to get a job. Waiting for things at work to improve. Waiting for diagnosis from the doctor. Waiting for life just to get better. 

But there are different kinds of waiting. There is the wait of despair. Here we know--at least we think we know--that things could never get better, that God could never do anything with our situations. This may be the kind of waiting that forced the fearful disciples to hide behind closed doors on Holy Saturday, cowering in terror. Of course they could be forgiven; after Jesus was executed they were in danger of being rounded up and executed by the Roman authorities. (Something tells me, though, that the women disciples, who overall proved themselves better friends than the men during the Passion, were more hopeful.) Then there is the wait of passivity, as if everything were up to “fate.” In this waiting there is no despair, but not much anticipation of anything good either. 

Finally, there is wait of the Christian, which is called hope. It is an active waiting; it knows that, even in the worst of situations, even in the darkest times, God is at work. Even if we can’t see it clearly right now. The disciples’ fear was understandable, but we, who know how the story turned out, who know that Jesus will rise from the dead, who know that God is with us, who know that nothing will be impossible for God, are called to wait in faithful hope. And to look carefully for signs of the new life that are always right around the corner--just like they were on Holy Saturday.
~ From Fr. James Martin, SJ

Naming My Year…

Almost three months into 2012 and I have finally determined my name for the year…“Patient Trust.” 

Back in December I shared about 2011 being my year of stability and my desire to name my 2012…HERE.  All this was inspired by my friend Daphne’s blog post, “Choosing to Name Your Year.” 

Well, better late than never, I guess?!

A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon these words of reflection and encouragement on “Patient Trust”…HERE. These words have stuck with me ever since. In my posture of seeking and attentiveness to God at work in my life, I tend to be pretty impatient with myself. At times, I have a hard time with unanswered questions and formation in process in my life. I’d much rather skip the waiting and just cut to the chase.

I’m not sure where these current stirrings of my heart, mind and soul will lead. I am uncertain how these stirrings will deepen my formation and vocation this 2012. But, I desire to seek and wait in a posture of “Patient Trust.” I also hope to live this posture of patient trust in my relationships and accompaniment with others this coming year.

This is my hope and prayer for 2012!

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
     to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
     unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
     that it is made by passing through
     some stages of instability—
     and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
     your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
     let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
     as though you could be today what time
     (that is to say, grace and circumstances
     acting on your own good will)
     will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
     gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
     that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
     in suspense and incomplete.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

Taken from: dotMagis: the blog of Ignatian Spirituality.com
http://ignatianspirituality.com/8078/prayer-of-theilhard-de-chardin/