and from being awake to staying awake.  Now climbing a mountain presents a challenge and a struggle.  For this we need to detach ourselves from the sea of commercialism to be ready to prepare for the NOT YET.   

Climbing a mountain calls us to be ALERT.  We can be awake without being alert.  Scripture says to be alert is “to conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day.” The struggle involved in climbing the mountain of life calls for alertness, to see things from a new perspective, to see the world from God’s view, to see God in the poor, the outcast, the uneducated.   

Alertness calls us to be more ATTENTIVE – more attentive to people and events. 

Things which were important to us become of lesser value.  A competitive and exploitive world calls us to be more attentive to God’s vision of sharing and concern.  Exclusivity, discrimination, prejudice, calls us to be the message of inclusivity.  We no longer march to the drum of society, but become people who dance to the music of inner attentiveness.

No matter how attentive we have become we often have to AWAIT God’s time for things to happen. We live in an age of acceleration.  We are so seduced by the instantaneous that we are in danger of losing our ability to Await. After Katrina people are still in the waiting time before dreams or rebuilding and restoration are realities.  They wait for buses, they wait for insurance, they wait for paychecks, and they wait for a war to cease.  Here nature teaches us a lesson. It is only in the earth, in the darkness that the seed germinates and grows.  Waiting time is growing time, a time of healing and restoration. So awaiting is an invitation to patience. Crucifixion was followed by Resurrection. This is spirituality, waiting time, retreating into our innermost being.  The Indian poet, Tagore, wrote:           

When old words die on the tongue          
New melodies break forth from the heart           
New country is revealed with its wonder.

Always let us await in hope.   

Our awakening, our being alert and attentive gives place to AWARENESS. The prophecy, “A virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son and call him Emmanuel has been fulfilled.  We are aware that our God is here. Our advent preparation has led us to the manger.  We are home; home in Him, safe and loved and sharing that love with others in awareness.

Sr Kathleen Mc Nally, OP

New Orleans