The Key Word this Holiday Season is "Patience"

by Adam Storey | December 12, 2023

Advent is probably the liturgical season I’m most inclined to rush through. 

I can’t wait for Christmas with all it brings, the wonder of my children, the time with family, the excitement of gifts both given and received. I can’t wait for Christmas, and yet this year it’s been on my heart to pray for more patience. 

My prayers for patience are related to the liturgical season, but they’re also related to various circumstances in my family’s life. There are a few big decisions and thorny topics my wife and I are navigating, and it’s easy to want pre-packaged answers to come with all the speed and decisiveness our culture teaches us to expect. 

While my impulse is to look for quick fixes and clear solutions, our liturgical year is inviting me to a bit more patience. 
I see this patience in the four weeks where we anticipate, and prepare for the Incarnation. 

Even more pointedly I see this patience in the Psalms, and in the history in which the Psalms are rooted. We often hear a profound longing in the Psalms, a desire to see God and see his will accomplished, and at the same time we know the generations upon generations during which Israel waited for the Messiah. As the psalmist says, “I wait with longing for the Lord, my soul waits for his word. My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak” (Psalm 130:5-6a). 

The Old Testament can teach us patience, and the mystery of God’s plan in our lives. 

Even as Israel longed for the Messiah, they didn’t always do so perfectly, and neither do we. 

Yet my hope for all of us this Advent is that we can grow in little ways to wait for the Lord’s Incarnation in our own circumstances. 

Certainly it’ll be surprising, and perhaps disruptive, and always in God’s own time. As we wait with longing let us pray, Come Lord Jesus!

Adam Storey oversees the diocesan Marriage & Family Life Office and serves as Mission Lead on the Evangelization & Mission Team. he can be reached at 515-237-5056 or astorey@dmdiocese.org.