Recently, I saw a post on Facebook saying something like, “You can’t have an adventure without advent”, and I thought about my spiritual adventure, and what is in store for me this year.

Advent: that time in the Christian calendar when people await expectantly the coming of Christ, a time of preparation for the coming of a long expected guest. It starts today, in the middle of the holiday shopping season. For those all concerned about keeping Christ in Christmas, I suggest a good starting point is keeping a holy advent, quietly expecting the coming of something greater than various holiday cards and gifts.

I am expecting to receive a very special gift in the next few weeks, not on Christmas Day, not even during the season of Christmas, but during Epiphany. I am expecting a small group of friends to gather and give me important epiphanies. I do not yet know what these epiphanies will be.

This past year, I had a strong sense of God calling me to step up my game, to find new ways of proclaiming God’s love to all. I have spoken with my priest about it. Together with my priest, we’ve spoken with the Bishop and the Dean of Formation, and the Dean of Formation suggested that my priest arrange for this gift to be given to me.

The gift will come through a process in the Episcopal Church called a discernment committee. A discernment committee is a small group of people that meet regular over a period of months to help a person better discern what God is calling that person to. It is part of the process of discerning whether or not ordination as a priest is part of that calling.

The Discernment Manual of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut starts off

Jesus calls each of us without exception, and keeps on calling and inviting us at every moment of every day into a deeper and deeper union with him. He eagerly waits for us to say “yes” to his invitation to join him in his mission. Sometimes, his invitation to come with him wherever he leads comes as a complete surprise, like waking up and discovering that life has become exhilarating and fraught with meaning and urgency to share his life and love with everyone we meet. Sometimes his invitation to serve him and discover who he is unfolds slowly over time, like a slowly ripening fruit. God knows what each of us needs. He gets our attention in just the right way in order to call us to our ultimate joy and wholeness, and it doesn’t always go as we expect or plan. When we say “yes” to Jesus, we give up our own control and let God be in charge.

Later on it provides some helpful guidelines for the discernment committee:

"Try on" Just like shopping for clothes, try on new ideas. You don’t have to own them and you will like[ly] learn something.

I must admit, I hate shopping for clothes, so the metaphor may not be perfect, yet I also recognize it may be challenging for me to try on various new spiritual clothes as well.

I do not yet know what I will end up with at the end of the process, but I still have time before the discernment committee starts meeting. Advent is a time of expectation. I am expecting Jesus to come into my life in new ways this liturgical year. Yet it is a time of waiting and preparation, so I study and pray.

Another post on Facebook that recently caught my attention was a cartoon showing a man reading a letter, saying to his wife, “It’s from the church: I’m being called up to active duty”. This really resonated to me. It feels like this is the year that I get called up to a new level of active duty in my faith. It is a year that we should all be called up to a new level of active duty in our own beliefs.

I hope to share more about this ADVENTure over the coming months, and that my posts about this journey will help others in their journey.

Buen Camino