Dear friends,

The state of Delaware recently experienced an unbroken period of 42 days without rain. Thursday last week was another beautiful day with blue skies. The temperature outside was 76ºF. The day before it was 81º. This was in November - a Fall season - when the days are meant to be cold. Several weeks ago I filled our fireplace with wood, but it’s been too warm to have a fire. 

Advent, the beginning of the Church Year, will soon begin. In the Northern Hemisphere, liturgical celebrations are linked to weather cycles. The drawing in of the autumn and winter nights is congruent with the darkness of human history about to be pierced by the light of Christ’s birth.

Below the equator, it’s the same story, but with different seasons. The days are growing longer and Christmas will be celebrated in summer. Because European and American culture is all pervasive, people in New Zealand and Australia will be sending Christmas cards with snow on them and in churches they will sing “In the Bleak Midwinter”. 

Advent is coming, as I say, and some people find this season confusing. It seems to look forward to the birth of Christ, but in fact it is about preparing for the second coming. Advent is actually a penitential season, like Lent. Not exactly sackcloth and ashes, but a time for self-examination and resolving to be more attentive to the things of God, rather than to the things of the world. 

Our lives have been dominated by politics lately, so I welcome the opportunity to turn the dial and listen to what God is saying. Like the seasons of nature, or the seasons of the church, the political world has its own seasons, which come and go. Only God is unchanging. Fortunately for us, his unchanging love is our salvation. God raises up humanity from the dust of creation for a purpose. This Advent could be the opportunity for you to discover what purpose God has for you.

With blessings,

Father David