Hours spent in hospital waiting rooms; waiting for stop lights; test results; grocery lines... Waiting fills much of our days. Yet, do we do it well?

     Celebrating the season of Advent is a powerful way to cultivate the art of waiting. For four weeks prior to Christmas, we are spiritually encouraged to quiet our hearts. But how can we sing, "For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits"... when we are living in the madness of retail mania and frantic Christmas schedules? How do we tame this season of 'Madvent' and adopt an 'attitude of waiting' to live out of every day?

     Henri Nouwen, one of the greatest spiritual writers of our time, wrote that the real secret of waiting is waiting with a sense of promise; knowing that the seed has been planted and that something has already begun! Like a farmer who waits for his crop to grow, or a mother who waits for her baby, they know that something has started and this allows them to wait.

     Nouwen explains that true waiting is always active. "The key to active waiting is to live fully in the moment - believing that something is happening where we are and being fully present to it; ... that this moment is the moment." Impatient people, on the other hand, feel like the moment is empty - always waiting for the real thing to happen somewhere else!

     Life has something to teach us even when we feel like we are wasting time. In every moment we have the opportunity to live fully, to be attentive and to wait actively in joyful hope, bringing the message of the Gospel and the peace of Christmas to one another and to a world that so desperately cries out for love.

Guest Author Michelle O'Rourke lives in Ontario, Canada and is an ER nurse with a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry. Her books include "Befriending Death: Henri Nouwen and a Spirituality of Dying" (Orbis 2009) and "Embracing the End of Life: Help for Those Who Accompany the Dying" (Novalis, March 2012). Visit www.selahresources.ca.