Are We There Yet? Advent is Year-Round

So, Advent and Christmas Day have come and gone, and we're left with the somewhat lackluster 12 days of the liturgical season of Christmas. (C'mon - you know it's true - church leaders are just as tired as everyone else, if not moreso, and they're probably ready to stuff away the Christmas bells too. If the 3 Wise Men arrive on January 6th, it's to half-eaten leftovers and cold potatoes...as it were.)

I didn't write any reflections this Advent, or spend too much (read: any) time in prayer and meditation, and by the time it got to Christmas, I was so jaded (I work in retail) that even the amazing cathedral choir just didn't do all that much for me.

(But then, it's not about me, is it?)

Advent did make me realize something, though. Advent is the key to Christmas. I didn't really have an Advent, because I was so bombarded with finals and relationships, and Consumerist Christmas and work and illness and a million other things that I neglected what the Orthodox have rightly called the "little Lent."

If only we could immerse ourselves in the dark midnight of Advent, plunging back into the ancient hills of Palestine, where a still, small something is stirring amidst the desert sands...

Maybe the world has to have itself an Advent before the return of Christ in glory.