Advent Companions IV
At the Abbey, “Christmas” decorations and celebrations don’t arrive until December 25, giving the sisters the entire season of Advent to wait and pray. Each year, Advent’s liturgy provides us with strong and wise companions for the journey.
Mary
For Mary also, Advent was a time of waiting, but rather than waiting for Jesus, she was waiting with Jesus. He was alive within her: growing, kicking, sleeping, both God and infant.
In the mysterious, visible but not yet here way of pregnancy, Mary took Jesus with her everywhere she went. Not just to Elizabeth and to Bethlehem, but to the market, to the orchards, to the fields, to the well. To meals with her family, to conversations with acquaintances, to prayer.
She brought the spark of God-life to each place and person just by her presence.
Let us also, in our own circumstances, nurture the life of God present within us. Following Mary, let us bear Christ into every encounter.