Advent is that season in which we look forward and we look back. It is a season of waiting, but, it is also a season of joyful expectation. How often have we heard and meditated on those thoughts. Here we are in the midst of another Advent season and I wonder if this season of Advent will be the same as all the others for us or if we will allow God to break into our well planned, day-to-day, schedules of existence and experience something new. Will we allow God to give us a vision that will enable us to see ourselves, our community and our world with fresh eyes or will we be intent on keeping everything the way that we think that it should be and things said and done in a way that make us comfortable? We say that we are waiting not only to celebrate the birth of Jesus in our world over two thousand years ago, but, we are waiting for his return. Sometimes I think that Jesus comes through the power of his Holy Spirit and because we think that events should happen in a certain way, or words should be spoken in a particular fashion or celebrations take place in a certain way, our way, we miss these visits to our hearts and minds which prepare us for his final coming at the end of time. Because Jesus doesn’t come in the way that we think he should, our way, we don’t recognize him. We brush off those nudgings in our minds and spirits to try something different or accept a new point of view, or listen rather than always give our opinion and feel that it must be accepted by all as the right and only way. We see people as different than ourselves and we move away rather than toward them. We refuse to dream those dreams about our future because we feel that we will not be a part of that future so why should we bother. God is tugging at our hearts and begging us to share what we hear in our hearts and accept what others hear in their hearts. When we look back we see two women who went before us that risked everything because of what they heard in their hearts as they prayed. They stepped out in trust, open to all that would present itself to them. They did so in humility and faith. They ventured where they had never been. They were willing to change and to dare and as a result they changed the face of Earth. These two women were Mary, the mother of Jesus and Mother Mary Theresa Dudzik, our foundress. Do we have the courage this Advent and beyond to follow in their footprints? What we have in common with them is that we are on a journey to an unknown destination and God has called all of us to prepare the way of the Lord as we move forward.