Advent on the Radio

I'll be on Morning Air with Sean Herriott at about 8 a.m. central time this morning. And since we'll be talking about Advent, I thought I'd round up a few posts.

The No-Panic series is right over there in the sidebar. ----->

Other Advent posts from the past:

2010
2011
So far this year 

And a post from the archives about Advent resolutions:

I love Advent. Liturgically, it's the beginning of a new year, full of possibility. Now is the time for new year resolutions.

Advent ~~ pregnant with hope and promise, anticipation, and with the fear and trembling of working out our salvation while God is at work in us ~~ is precisely the right time to assess our  spiritual lives. 

The liturgical calendar is a wise and gentle gift. 

"Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth," Fr. Merton says.

Time.
Time to slow down.
Time to savor what's been given us. Gifts. Crosses.
Time to pray about what is to come.
Time to pray about the way He came to us as a baby, the way He will come again in glory.
Time.

When we mentally connect "Time" and "Advent" we so often think, "There's not enough! There's no time! There's never enough time!"

Oh, but there is. Stop. Listen. Be still for awhile.

Advent by Thomas Merton

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights, 
Skies, and be perfect! Fly, vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors, 
And disappear. 
You moon, be slow to go down, 
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence 
Towards the four parts of the starry universe. 
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth. 
We have become more humble than the rocks, 
More wakeful than the patient hills.

(Read the whole poem here.)