I wasn\u2019t a particularly religious young man but knew there was something about contemplation that drew me. I wasn\u2019t really interested in pursuing it, however, because that would mean that I would have to take time to be still instead of raging quietly into the night. The contemplative life would have to wait. The snow, however, was so pretty and so I wandered out into it right up to the edge of a little pond in our complex. Maybe it was the beauty of the moment which Balthasar assures us draws us closer to the Mystery or maybe I was just cold. Who knows?\u00a0 But I paused and just listened. The snow and ice made a light hiss sound that when combined with the whoosh of the wind was hypnotic.<\/p>\n
I can not recall if I believed in God back then but I was aware of \u201cthe divine\u201d at least in the abstract and this moment was somehow drawing me closer to it. It\u2019s here that I want to return to this advent season. Advent is about expectation for something divine to incarnate and even a loud-mouthed kid like myself can have what I like to call an advent encounter. In this case, I had enough exposure to contemplation to allow myself to be immersed, to have contact with Something and that initial encounter drove me to want more. Creation itself was opening me up to the Creator and like Saint Augustine my heart would be restless until it rested in that Creator. Like the Advent season, I was waiting for what would come next. Little did I know that three short years later, I would enter into Holy Mother Church.<\/p>\n
The funny thing about Advent is that the \u201cencounter\u201d is often given to us in moments we aren\u2019t prepared for or, more likely, unable to notice. As we prepare for the Christmas season my question for all of us is this:\u00a0 when was your Advent encounter?<\/p>\n
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