The season in the Christian Year called "Advent" runs through the Sundays of Nov. 29 to Dec. 20 this year.

It comes from the Latin word meaning "coming."  Christians have believed for centuries that the season of Advent serves as a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah, as well as the waiting that Christians today endure for the second coming of Christ.

At Vine, during the Sundays of Advent, we'll mainly mark the season with the lighting of the Advent Candle in the worship gathering. 

Christopher Webb, president of Renovare, writes this about Advent in his booklet, "Seasons of Life:"

The traditional beginning of the Christian Year, (Advent) is marked by anticipation:  a period of looking ahead, a time of hope - but hope not yet fully realized.  The familiar Advent hymn, "O come, O come, Emmanuel" perfectly captures the spirit of the season; even though Jesus is among us, and we dwell in his presence, still we long for a nearer and greater vision of him, for his return among us.

Bernard of Clairvaux, the great twelfth century Cistercian abbot, once wrote about Advent:

 "During my frequent ponderings on the burning desire with which the patriarchs longed for the incarnation of Christ, I am stung by sorrow and shame...Very soon now there will be great rejoicing as we celebrate the feast of Christ's birth.  But how I wish it were inspired by his birth!  All the more, therefore, do I pray that the intense longing of those men of old, their heartfelt expectation, may be enkindled in me."

Many of us, watching the unfolding of the early winter months, might share Bernard's wish that the seasonal celebrations be a little more Christ-centered.  Shop windows fill with fluffy snow and angels.  Lights festoon houses, lamp-posts and stores, and wind in long bright strings overhead in the streets.  Santa is everywhere: handing out gifts from grottos, ringing his bell outside grocery stores, falling into unlikely scrapes on the television - and taking every opportunity, presumably, to keep an eye out for who is naughty or nice.  Carolers in flickering lampligh sing of joy to the world and of sleigh bells ringing.  Children wait breathlessly for school's end and the promise of toys and candy.

Where in all this, we might wonder, is Jesus?  Confronted with an increasingly secular celebration - a Christless Christmas - it would be easy to sigh along with Bernard: "How I wish this were inspired by his birth!"  But the abbot points us away from such lamentation, and towards a more positive road.  For us, even if for no-one else, the Advent season is a time when our longing for God can be enkindled in us, when the fires of our passion for Christ can be stoked until they blaze.

Advent calls us to disciplines of expectancy:

• Meditation on scripture, especially the prophetic books (the back of the Old Testament).  Many liturgical churches will spend a good part of this season reflecting on the second half of the book of Isaiah, which is filled with longing for the coming of God and his Messiah.  The Song of Songs is also deeply expressive on desire and yearning.
• Worship helps us turn our hearts toward God, and in the weeks leading up to Christmas opportunities to sing and pray with others abound.
• Compassion to the poor can help us refocus on the values of the coming Kingdom of God, for which we fervently wait and hope.  This serves to recall us to life in the Kingdom, the radical and transformative reality which Jesus came to inaugurate.

Advent stirs up the restlessness and homelessness in our souls, reminding us that we are "strangers and foreigners on the earth," (Hebrews 11:13) whose only true home is in God.  Maria Boulding, a contemporary English Benedictine nun, once wrote:

"If you want God, and long for union with him, yet sometimes wonder what that means or whether it can mean anything at all, you are already walking with the God who comes.  If you are at times so weary and involved with the struggle of living that you have no strength even to want him, yet are still dissatisfied that you don't, you are already keeping Advent in your life."