Reflective Moments with Angela – a time for second comings

This Advent, we will be reflecting again on “Comings,” though lately I have been especially focused on “Coming Again,” since I just moved back to our Ursuline Motherhouse in western Kentucky.

I am remembering my first coming, in a hot September of 1961, when the four of us entering from New Mexico tried getting used to a humid climate where (as we told our parents) the stamps licked themselves and stuck together, the washcloths never dried, and our hair either frizzed or went limp – depending on our genetic endowment. And where the hot weather made us notice we were wearing several more layers of clothing.

Now I am living in the building that was built in that year! The night before we entered, some of us bolder types climbed up the unfinished stairwells on ladders, in the rain, to peer down into the windows to watch the novices dancing at recreation.

Any “Coming” can be hard, since it implies leaving the old and learning something new. And yet our faith tells us that,

“While all things were in quiet silence, the almighty Word leapt down from heaven from a royal throne…into the midst of a land of destruction.”  (Wisdom 18:14-18)

So, I can surely face my yet-to-be unpacked boxes, messy room, and the newness that comes with being a learner all over again. (Like learning where things are, how to get things done, renewing old friendships, and discovering the unwritten rules that govern how everything works.)

God leapt down to “pitch his tent among us,” to find himself in an occupied country, to live in poverty, and to flee as an immigrant does from violence and oppression. My “second coming” back to welcoming friends and to what – after all, is my home – is certainly easier.

And I can take inspiration from Saint Angela Merici, who was always encountering the New. She was always moving about, always living in households not her own, and frequently going on pilgrimages. She knew that being a pilgrim is a constant waiting to get where you are going!

By keeping our hearts open, we can all prepare for how God is going to come to us this Advent, in new people and circumstances.

What is new in your life that requires a “second coming?” Or is something new coming into your life? How will you greet it?

This Advent, how will you keep your heart open to welcome the God who once again is coming to sink roots into the soil where you are growing?