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we're talking about the spirituality of
Advent which is the great liturgical
season of waiting and I want to start in
a perhaps unusual place
it's an avant-garde German film I know
called Run Lola Run Lola has to get an
extraordinary amount of money in this
extraordinarily short period of time at
the high point of the movie Lola is
running running running trying to
accomplish this goal and she slows to a
trot then she looks up and she says Iike
Vata yatta her German fort I'm waiting
I'm waiting now there's never an
indication in the movie that she's the
least bit religious God has never
mentioned once but there's no question
that at that moment it's something like
a prayer and then of course oddly the
whole plot resolves itself and she
accomplished what she wants it's as
though the prayer was answered
Lola's always struck me as a really
interesting Advent figure we're a go-go
culture we run run run accomplish our
goals but at certain point we realized
we can't do it and we look up and we say
yay FAFSA I'm waiting I'm waiting for
God and of course Lola has all kinds of
antecedents in the Bible think of
someone like Abraham who's given this
great promise that you'll be the father
of many nations even though he's a very
old man his wife is a very old woman
God makes this promise and then for
years
Abraham has to wait and even as he gets
older his wife gets older the promise
becomes less and less likely he probably
hears all the objections of his of his
confreres
but he continues to wait and to trust we
have to learn and Advent the time to do
it we have to learn how to put ourselves
on God's timetable in God's frame of
reference not our own very often in the
spiritual life we're not ready for what
God wants to accomplish for us God has
promised something to us but we're not
ready for it yet and we have to go
through a kind of long period
of training in the divine school like
any kid learning how to play an
instrument any kid learning a sport you
have to go through a long period of
training and discipline before you're
ready san agustin talks about prayer
that God sometimes delays in answering
prayer why because he wants the heart of
the prayer to expand so as to receive
what God wants to give so we ask for
something and we expect it but the heart
is not prepared yet the heart isn't
isn't big enough yet to receive what God
wants to give and so God makes us wait
and as we wait the heart as it were
dilates the heart gets bigger more
receptive so that when God is ready on
his own timetable to give us what he
wants then we're finally ready for it
all of this I think is deeply inscribed
in the biblical way of approaching God
and so during the season of Advent we're
all called to enter into this space now
I for one have always found this
difficult I don't like to wait I'm a
kind of impatient person I like to
accomplish my goals and get them done
when I see fit I hate waiting in a
doctor's office I hate waiting in
traffic
it's very salutary it's a very good
thing for people like me and and most
people in our culture are kind of like
to be that way it's very salutary that
we are made of times to wait to slow
down which is why some of the great
practices of the church are very helpful
during Advent I'm thinking for example
of the Rosary prayer one of the great
prayers in the church and I think what
the rosary is it doesn't get you
anywhere you start praying the rosary
and you go right around the circle and
you come right back to where you started
from
where have you gotten well nowhere in
particular
you haven't made some great progress
you've gone around in this slow
meditative circle and the Rosary by its
very nature compels you to slow down you
can't really zip your way through it
even my grandmother who paraded at 95
miles an hour it still took her time to
get through the Rosary
put your rosary around your rear view
mirror and that just is a kind of a
highest decoration keep it there as a
tool of prayer
next time you're caught in traffic don't
bang the steering wheel that's what I
usually do or shout it at the
frustration of it take the Rosary down
and think okay maybe the Lord is
purposely stopping me he's making me
wait now good take the Rosary out and
pray that very slow meditative prayer
keep a list in your car of people that
you want to pray for keep it right there
on your dashboard or in your glove
compartment and when you're stuck in
traffic take it out and pray for those
particular people the car closed in
quiet you know when you're by yourself
turn the radio off - quiet closed in
space is a good place for prayer think
of it as a little bit of a monastic cell
and pray the rosary or pray in a focused
way for certain people those can be
great Advent practices along this line
of Spiritual waiting
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you
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