Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year. It is a time of new beginnings - and yet it is also a time of waiting and expectation. It is perhaps no accident that we tell stories from scripture about two pregnancies during the Advent Season: Mary and Elizabeth. Pregnancy is a good metaphor for the season of Advent. It encapsulates that sense of ‘already, but not yet’. So during Advent we wait, with a sense of anticipation and hope - but for all the wonder and joyful anticipation, we might as well acknowledge that this time of waiting, like a pregnancy, can also be uncomfortable, unsettling, unfamiliar, just a bit exhausting…. The challenge during the season of Advent is to cultivate a kind of 'contemplative patience' as we await the coming of the Messiah.

‘Contemplative patience’ is a phrase of the Irish poet, John O’Donahue. We might wonder whether there is any value in ‘contemplative impatience’, particularly as we contemplate the pain of the world, the war in Ukraine, and embrace our longing for justice and mercy. But it is another poem by John O’Donahue that I want to commend you. Its title? For a New Beginning.

In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

- John O’Donohue (1956 - 2008)