I love Advent. I love the Advent wreath. I love the Advent calendar (especially if it’s chocolate). I really love the music. I think I miss singing for Mass most during Advent, and I’m humming Handel’s Messiah while I’m writing this. But most of all I love the hopefulness of it.
Tomorrow, as you’re reading this, is my 30 year Catholic anniversary. I converted 30 years ago tomorrow. I know it’s unusual to convert during Advent instead of Easter, and I’m not entirely sure how that happened, but it did. And I’ve always felt that it gave my Catholic-ness a lot of hope.
This time of year, we’re preparing for the end of the term and hoping for a positive outcome. We’re preparing for holiday celebrations and shopping, hoping our selections are appreciated. After the preparation of Advent, we get the joys of Christmas. And it does comfort me, after this month of preparation and hope to get to celebrate the miraculous birth at the end. Just like after our lives of preparation and hope we get to celebrate our miraculous birth to ever-lasting life.
Tamora Whitney
I teach in the English department. I teach composition and literature and Critical Issues -- a class that has a component on Jesuit values.
I like writing these reflections because it makes me think more deeply about the scripture and think about how to integrate the ideas into my own life and how to share these ideas with others.
