God of hope, we turn to you in this season of waiting. We anxiously await your coming into our world, into our lives anew at Christmas. We are eager to do your work -- the work of peace, of justice, of mercy. But we also know we must trust in your time. Give us patience, that we may see you in all things, never missing an opportunity to heed your call, in ways both big and small. Amen.
Patient Trust - Part 1
Each week of Advent, we pause and reflect on sections of the poem by Teilhard de Chardin, SJ.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
Ours is a vision of peace and justice; we’re anxious to see it lived out. But we must trust in God’s timing.
In days to come, the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: "Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.
Maria G. Arroyo has an MA in Theology from Loyola Marymount University and is a trained spiritual director. Currently, she serves as a field director at Catholic Relief Services.