Advent A

I decided to start Advent today.

I am really grateful for Advent this year. I need a long period of introspection and time to pull myself inward and together. I need to find a way to be quiet and at peace during this season when the malls jump up and down and beckon, when I am surrounded at work by Chanukah, and when my dining room wall lies bare to the studs. You would think that I would be well practiced in those activities, after a year's Ignatian Retreat and months of writing my way toward seminary. But for the past four months I have had to share so much of whom I am in ways that have pulled me in so many directions, always knowing that the resolution still lies months in the future, that I feel quite at odds with myself.

So I decided that I could not wait until Sunday for Advent to start.

One of today's lectionary readings is Ephesians 1:3-14. The mysticism of Paul has somewhat recently been brought to my attention, and here it is. To us through Christ, outside space and time. A good place to start Advent, even though it isn't Advent yet. A place for internalizing Presence and coming to terms with fragments of plaster. A place from which to look out and beyond as a way of moving inward.

A place from which to launch preparations.