Advent: Nurturing the Days, Walking in the Park

I took a long walk this morning with our dog in Duke Island Park, a 339-acre park along the Raritan River in Bridgewater NJ. It was my first visit to the park, named after the late heiress Doris Duke, who donated much of the land in the park to the county. Few people were in the park this morning, which meant I could hear the late-fall leaves rustle, see hawks fly overhead and contemplate the Presence that took nothingness and brought all this Beauty to us. We nurture these December days with expectation and hope.

 "Advent, in the natural world, is a season of diminishing light, a season of harsh winds wailing against barren trees, reminding us that we have left behind the warmth and brightness of summer days, only to penetrate more each day into the darkness and gloom of winter. 

But Advent is also a season of expectation, pregnant with the hope that with the coming of God's Son into the world, he who is the the light of the world, will shed light into the caves and crevices of our lives, of our world. And this light that we so long for is a spiritual light that touches and illumines our souls, bringing with it hope for the future."Fr. Richard Scheiner C.P.