[Propertalk] Presiding bishop on Advent: 'What is it that you are most waiting for?'

[Joe Parrish]

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/11/28/presiding-bishop-on-advent
-what-is-it-that-you-are-most-waiting-for/ 

[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs] Noting that Advent is a time of
waiting for "the coming of the Prince of Peace, the one who will reign with
justice over this world," Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine
Jefferts Schori focuses on two questions in her Advent 2012 message: "What
is it that you are most waiting for?" and "How are you going to wait this
year?"

The presiding bishop's Advent 2012 message, videotaped in the Chapel of the
Good Shepherd on the grounds of the General Theological Seminary
<http://www.gts.edu/>  in New York, is available
<http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/11/28/presiding-bishop-on-adven
t-what-is-it-that-you-are-most-waiting-for/#>  here
<http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/presiding-bishop> .

The first Sunday of Advent is Dec. 2.

In addition to the video, the following is the text of Jefferts Schori's
Advent 2012 Message.

Advent 2012
As you prepare for the season of Advent, I would commend two questions to
your musings and your prayer and your meditation: What is it that you are
most waiting for?  And, how are you going to wait this year?

I'm struck this particular season by the waiting of several women in
Christian history
<http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/11/28/presiding-bishop-on-adven
t-what-is-it-that-you-are-most-waiting-for/#> .  Mary obviously, waiting for
the birth of the Promised One in her part of the world, a child born for the
whole world.

Also Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptizer, who comes before Jesus.
Elizabeth has been promised a child in her old age, these are both very
unexpected births, they are waiting.

And I'm struck particularly this year by Elizabeth of Hungary, a saint of
the Church who lived in the thirteenth century, who was betrothed as a child
herself, married at 14, a mother of three by the time her husband died when
she was 20.  She spent her life giving it away, giving it away both
physically through her means and through her presence and her healing.  She
was an icon of generosity.

What is it you wait for this year?  Is it an opportunity to meet the
surprising around you? Is it an opportunity to reflect on what is most
needed in your heart and in the world around you?  How are you going to wait
for that gift?  Are you going to wait actively?  Engaged?  Honing your
desire? Stoking the passion within you for that dream?  Are you going to
wait for a dream that will bless the whole world?

That's what Christians wait for in the season of Advent - of the coming of
the Prince of Peace, the one who will reign with justice over this world.  I
believe that's what the world most needs, this year and every year.

May your season of waiting be fruitful and blessed.  May it be filled with
surprise and a willingness to engage that surprise.

A blessed Advent.
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

 

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