First Sunday of Advent Gospel Reflection

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Waiting is learning’

The bleak mid-winter heralds the arrival of a new Church Year. As we light the first purple candle on the Advent wreath we embark once again on a journey that will lead us to the manger at Bethlehem. At Christmas we will celebrate God’s gift to the world. During Advent we look forward to that gift. It’s a season for waiting and reflecting. Our world is full of waiting from the rising of the sun to its’ setting; waiting for that phone call, waiting for the doctor, waiting in traffic, waiting for the plane. ‘Waiting is learning’, according to the late Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen, ‘the longer we wait the more we learn about Him for whom we are waiting’. May we learn in our waiting, and when we stand before the manger on Christmas morning may we be surprised yet again, to discover that He is the One who has been waiting for us all along