A New Year Has Begun

The coming of Advent marks the start of a new year in the liturgical or Church calendar.  Some thirty-five years ago, I decided to begin my new year  with Advent, rather than following the civil or Gregorian calendar.  So far it has worked well.  The year 2018 began yesterday for me!

“The river is everywhere.” 

                   (Hermann Hesse)

Advent is special time—a tie of promise:

    it is a time of preparation for the new about to happen,

    it is a time of new beginnings.

Advent is a time of expectancy...a time of happenings: 

   annunciations are heard if ears are opened,   

   dreams are dreamed and guidance given.

Advent is a time of giving birth to God:

    we carry God around with us and do not know it,

     it is a time for a new birth within.  

Advent is a time of waiting:

    waiting for mountains to be brought down; hills to be leveled;

    valleys to be lifted up; crooked places to be made straight.

Advent is a time of moving—a time of transition:

    it is not a movement backward, but forward,  

    it is moving me, you and the world to a place it has never been before.

Advent is about newness—a time for the "New Things:”

    it is a season of receptivity and openness,

    it is a time of new vulnerability for me, for you, and for God. 

Advent announces a Way—a new chapter, a new path,

  it is a time to sing a new song, dance a new dance,

  it is a time of searching and for finding.

Advent is all of the above—it is kairos time:

  it is a good time to start a new year, to begin anew,

  Advent is the time to follow your star to the Bethlehem of the heart.