I hate to stand in line. I hate to be put on hold. I hate to inch along a four-lane highway in rush-hour traffic. I’m a normal, busy American who’s always in a hurry to get somewhere. I have plans. I have work to do. And, like every redblooded American hurrier, I view time in queue as time lost. These are hard times for my sort of hurrier. It’s holiday-shopping season. The lines are longer in the stores. The traffic is worse, especially around the malls. And whenever we’re placed on hold, the phone seems to play “The Little Drummer Boy” on an infinite tape loop. I’m just beginning to learn to thank God for these nuisances, because they’re an ideal way to spend the season. Yes, you heard that right. Our frenetic, materialist society — through God’s providence — has evolved a month of anxious waiting before Christmas. God has given us (or at least allowed) these conditions to teach us the truth about Advent. What is Advent? Advent is the name the church gives to the four-week period before Christmas. It’s a season of preparation. We prepare for the celebration of Christmas, which is a memorial of Christ’s first coming. But we also prepare our minds and hearts to await his second coming at the end of time. Indeed, in Advent, we have a great opportunity to develop certain habits of welcoming Christ into every day of our lives. Christians have been doing this since the earliest days. Through the first three centuries of Christianity, the date of Christmas varied slightly from time to time and place to place, but one thing remained constant: The church prepared for the great feast by a special season of prayer and penance. Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter. In fact, in some eastern churches, the spring fast is called “Great Lent” in order to set it apart from the “little Lent” that precedes Christmas. In Advent as in Lent, we mark the time by certain traditional practices of penance. We give things up, for example. We offer them up to God. In fifth-century France, Christians prepared for Christmas by fasting three days a week during a 40-day period. Today, the church does not mandate a fast, but a once-a-week cutback on our food intake couldn’t hurt most Americans. In the Mass during Advent, we do not sing or pray the “Glory to God in the Highest,” which is one of the church’s principal acclamations of joy. Such joy we reserve for the moment of Christ’s coming — for Christmas. Increase your joy Yet Advent is hardly a joyless time. As our priests say in every Mass, “we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” We can probably work a bit at increasing our joy this season. The ancient Christians, in the middle of their Advent fast, knew greater joy than do we modern Americans — whose life, by any historical standard, is a continual feast. The ancient Christians gave up a bodily pleasure so that their souls could turn, instead, to God. They fasted and feasted, all in due season, for the sake of love. Their whole life burned with the fire of that single passion: the consuming love of God. If we sense something missing in our lives, if we lack a sense of purpose, if we struggle to find meaning in world events and personal crises, then maybe now is a good time — a time given by God — to recover the passion of our ancestors in the faith. Let’s make a commitment today. Let’s make a daily plan for Advent, a plan that will awaken our longing for Jesus, a longing that only Christmas can satisfy. I know you’re busy. We’re all busy. But if you can find time in your day for a little bit of TV, radio, snacking or web surfing, you can make time to pray. Consider the following traditional practices. 1. Go to Mass more often If you go faithfully every Sunday, good for you! But maybe you can make room in your schedule to go on certain weekdays during Advent. Check out www.archchicago.org for the daily schedules of the parishes nearest your home. You might have to inconvenience yourself a little bit — get up an hour earlier or skip lunch. Offer the sacrifice for the sake of a friend who needs God’s help. 2. Fast Jesus fasted. The apostles fasted. We know from Scripture that fasting is a powerful form of prayer. The pope has suggested it as an effective way to bring world peace. There are many ways to fast. You can choose not to eat between meals for all of Advent. You can pick a day of the week and limit yourself to one full meal on that day. You can give up desserts. You can forego a favorite food. You can go meatless on certain days (Wednesday and Friday are traditional). Or you can choose a non-food fast, such as TV or the Web. The important thing is to make a real sacrifice — one you can feel — and to offer it to God. 3. Pray the Rosary Praying the Joyful Mysteries is a great way to get in touch with the events leading up to the world’s first Christmas. No time, you say? If you commute to work, try praying the Rosary in your car or on the bus or train. It sure beats talk radio. Can’t find time for the whole Rosary? Pray one decade. I have friends, a large family, who pray a decade at the end of every dinner. It spares them the effort of gathering the family together. It builds family unity. And it launches the evening in a peaceful, orderly way. 4. Do the readings If you can’t get to Mass every day, at least read the church’s Bible readings every day. You can find them in a missal or at www.usccb.org (choose “Bible” and then “Readings”). During Advent, the daily Scriptures focus on the longing of ancient Israel as God’s people awaited the Messiah. In the Gospel readings, we see the holy impatience of John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord. Remember, Advent is not only about remembering the first Christmas; it’s also about preparing for the Second Coming. The Bible will help us to take for our own the holy impatience of John, Isaiah and King David. 5. Pray short prayers. These are ideal for the times you’re stuck waiting — for an elevator, for someone to pick up the phone, for the light to turn green. Just take a line from Scripture and pray it. Here are some you can tape to your dashboard, carry in your wallet, or keep in the top drawer of your desk. “O Lord — how long?” (Ps 6:3). “Maranatha — come, Lord Jesus” (Rv 22:20). “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). “Lord, increase our faith” (Lk 17:5). “Lord, that I may see” (Lk 18:41). Wait, one last thing We can live in our anxious time as the Old Testament prophets lived in theirs. They believed in God’s promise. This faith gave them a fine sensitivity to injustice and a holy impatience for the day of the Lord’s coming. Once we’ve sanctified our impatience, we can use it to fuel our tireless work to advance the coming of the kingdom. And maybe we can use our time in line, or on hold, or in traffic, to pray to God, or to dream up an act of charity. It’s Advent after all — and what are we waiting for?