The Advent of my dreams -- or something like it...

For years now, I've looked forward to the time where I could spend an entire liturgical season in one place -- yes you heard me right, a whole liturgical season... Just Advent to Christmas, or Lent to Easter -- I'll even cede the second half of the cycle (Christmastide or the paschal pentecost)! These are central times of the Christian year -- the two "penitent" seasons leading up to the two great feasts -- times I'm convinced should be spent with a local community for the sake of mutual support...

Alas, since I went to college, I've rarely been able to spend the entire cycle in one place -- let alone in a community that takes these seasons as seriously as I'd like. I keep looking forward to a time when that will be possible....

This year, in some sense anyway, I'll be spending all of Advent in one place -- the church where I work -- straight through until Christmas Eve services! So far, so good! Christmas day, because my commute to work is as long as it is, I'll spend the time with my wife and attend her church, but the time is finally here!

Somehow, the pressures of the ordination process, the crunch of the end of the semester, and too little time to spend with my wife in the midst of everything drags on the idyllic nature of my ideal Advent, but I'm still thrilled to be so close! Now, when Lent and Easter come (and I can do Ash Wednesday all the way to Easter -- or better yet Pentecost in one place...), then I'll be truly extatic!