Praying Toward Anticipation

It’s been a delight so far this Advent to pray using Phyllis Tickle’s Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany. Our little family gathers at night before bedtime and prays through the vespers or compline.

Over the years, as I have been situating myself with fixed hour prayer, I have come to appreciate the way the word of prayer penetrates your soul, so subtly that you do not realize it. Yet day after day, you begin to feel the chorus of the hours, that the cry of anticipation, Even so, come, Lord Jesus!, begins to beat in your soul.

In fasting and prayer, this Advent has been a reminder of anticipation. I never thought I would anticipate the use of oil as I do now for the more relaxed fast days. What a treat to have popcorn with olive oil and Old Bay sprinkled on it over the weekend! It’s been a joyous anticipation, and I am surrounded by signs of God’s providence, mercy and provision.