Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

A family lights an Advent wreath at their Maryland home. (OSV News photo/Tom McCarthy Jr., Catholic Review)

While you wait 


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Catholic Review Filed Under: Advent, Commentary, The Domestic Church

Before you become a parent, there is so much you don’t realize. You have no idea that missing naptime can throw off your day – or even the next one, too. You can’t imagine how many water bottles or lunchboxes you’ll go through over the years. And you don’t realize how much more of your life you’ll spend waiting. 

I’ve whittled away hour after hour at the orthodontist’s office. I’ve sat shivering on cold, rainy sidelines hoping games will finally end. I’ve listened and applauded through multi-hour concerts just to hear a child play one or two rounds of “Hot Cross Buns.” 

And I’ve sat for hours – perhaps cumulative weeks – of my life in car lines, waiting in school parking lots. 

I’m not complaining. I have the honor and joy of being a parent, and I wouldn’t trade that for any role in the world. But I never would have guessed how much time I would spend watching the clock for our sons to finish classes and extracurricular activities or return to school from field trips, performances and other outings. 

It’s only fair. With two working parents, my children have spent plenty of time waiting for their parents, too. But as I’m sitting and wondering how soon I’ll see them, I often think about how my husband and I waited to meet them for the first time. Those days during the adoption process were long and sometimes frustrating. I tried to trust that everything would happen in God’s perfect timing, but I also just wanted to meet them. 

Waiting isn’t easy. Waiting asks us to trust in God fully. Waiting pushes us to set aside our interests for others’. Waiting compels us to remember that so much is out of our hands. No matter what podcast or Wordle game or phone call we have to entertain us while the minutes pass, we’re at the mercy of circumstances beyond our control. 

We can wait in frustration or in peace. We can wait in excitement or in exasperation. We can wait in worry or in hope. We have to wait. What we bring to it is up to us. 

During this time of preparation for Christmas, Advent offers us a beautiful opportunity to grow in faith while we are waiting. We aren’t just crossing off items on our holiday list or marking off days on the calendar. God invites us instead to wait with faith and purpose, carving out time for prayer and taking the time to notice his presence in our lives. 

“God comes to you more than you go to him,” Venerable Fulton Sheen said. “Never will his coming be what you expect, and yet never will it disappoint.” 

And so, we wait in confidence, knowing that Jesus comes to the world for each of us. He will bring light to the darkness, divine love to humanity and joy to the world. 

What a gift Jesus will bring for us this Christmas. And what beautiful gifts we might unwrap along the way, in the love, faith and joy we find on this road to Bethlehem. May this be a season of hope and joy as we walk with God through Advent toward Christmas.  

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