By Sr. Barbara Bir, OSU
I love music! When I’m stuck in a hard place with rocks and boulders inside of me, music flows in and softens those rocky places, bringing me to God.
This has been a particularly hard Advent for me because I can usually enter into Advent quite easily. Not this year! That’s where music comes in.
In my aging and reflecting on Advent this year, I have come to believe that all of life is about Advent: waiting, longing, yearning for God to be easily recognizable in our lives. Advent music underlines that for me. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” When I listen and listen again to Mannheim Steamroller’s version of this hymn, or The Piano Guys’ version, I am easily drawn into the deep longing for God with us in my life.
Singing “I long for you, O Lord” at Mass brings a similar yearning for God within. And always, the Advent/Christmas portion of Handel’s “Messiah.” And the St. Louis Jesuits’ album, “Gentle Night,” with the traditional Advent songs. So much music! So little Advent time.
At my first teaching assignment at St. Elizabeth School, I told my fourth graders that Advent was waiting, waiting for God to come into our lives. To emphasize this, I told them that one day “someone special” would come into our classroom and surprise them. I then asked our curmudgeonly pastor if he would help me with my religion class and pay them a surprise visit during Advent. He agreed—to my surprise. And one day he came into our classroom with treats for the class. The one we waited for had come. And the students responded with joy and laughter.
And really, isn’t that the point of Advent after all? The One we wait for has come into our lives. Emmanuel, God is with us. We have four short weeks to enter into the longing, yearning, waiting to sink into the busy, distracted, rocky places inside of us where Emmanuel is. How will I respond?
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