A Spirit of Faith During Our Advent Waiting

by Sr. Myra Lambert, sscm

As I reflected on the topic of Advent Faith, my heart remembered a poem by Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD) entitled Advent:

I live my Advent in the womb of Mary.
And on one night when a great star swings free 
from its high mooring and walks down the sky 
to be the dot above the Christus i, 
I shall be born of her by blessed grace. 
I wait in Mary-darkness, faith’s walled place, 
with hope’s expectance of nativity.

I knew for long she carried and fed me, 
guarded and loved me, though I could not see. 
But only now, with inward jubilee, 
I come upon earth’s most amazing knowledge: 
Someone is hidden in this dark with me.

Our Advent is much like the time of Mary’s pregnancy. How was Mary’s faith deepened during the time of her pregnancy? How can our faith deepen?

Mary’s faith must have been both challenged and strengthened when the Angel Gabriel came to her and (greeting her in a way that surprised Mary.

The Gospel of Luke tells us, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” To the angel’s request that she bear the Savior, Mary, in faith, chose to say YES.

Again Mary said Yes when she told her parents, Joachim and Anne, about the visit of Gabriel and that this pregnancy was of God. Mary said Yes when she told Joseph about her pregnancy. Mary’s journey to Elizabeth and Zachary was another way Mary said Yes to the Spirit’s promptings. Mary had to say Yes as she suffered from morning sickness, as her body began to change, as she became aware of Life within her. “I live my Advent in the womb of Mary.”

Mary lived her faith as she waited for this new Life within her to grow and develop and come to fruition. Mary lived her faith as she suffered from the judgmental looks of the villagers. Looks can hurt as profoundly as words. Mary lived her faith as she married Joseph and began to share a home with him, making their home a welcoming place for this new Life. Mary lived her faith in waiting.

Mary is that model for all of us of what it means to live faith. Mary models for us the joys and sufferings of our Yesses lived in faith. As Mary waited in “Mary – darkness,” “that walled place,” so, too, we wait in faith.

Faith is saying Yes over and over again as we live out the life to which our first Yes called us. Faith can, first of all, be considered an intellectual ascent to the mystery that we call God. I think that most of us make that intellectual Yes long before we make the Yes of our heart to God. Mary’s Yes to the Angel Gabriel was a heart Yes.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Each of us is called to live our faith, to name our call, and to claim the grace given us to live our call of faith. In my own life there were many calls of faith but the most astonishing moment of faith experience, my “Mary’s Yes,” my Advent faith experience, was what I would call my vocational faith experience.

When I was 18 – 23, I struggled with a call to religious life. I had romantic attractions to the idea of being a Sister and had close contact with the Sisters, yet their world looked so “different” from my world and I couldn’t give up my world easily. I struggled with yes and no during these years. Finally, one event startled me to say my yes in faith.

I awoke from sleep at 3:00 one morning, sat up in bed, and said aloud, “Yes, I will enter the convent.” Was I responding to a dream that I still cannot remember? Was it the Spirit? Or an angel visitor? I do not know. All I do know is that I responded in a definitive manner. The grace of that response carried me to the novitiate of the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary in Batavia, Illinois on September 8, 1957, the feast of the Nativity of Mary. That early morning Yes was my experience of faith, my Advent Faith experience.

As with Mary’s Yes experience, my Yes came often in my 3 years in Formation. Every month when my family visited, my Yes was said with tears as they left. My Yes was repeated when in January they couldn’t come because of weather, my Yes was repeated in my first Mission in Minneapolis, again repeated when I didn’t make it home in time before my Dad died. Just as with every Yes that Mary spoke, all of our Yeses shape us and form us. For every Yes spoken, we are grateful to God for the Grace given to speak that Yes.

I am forever grateful for the Grace that was given me to say Yes. Choosing religious life was absolutely the most wonderful of gifts.

Please share your experience of faith. What is your experience of saying Yes? I would love to know. Remember your “Yes” experiences of faith and share what you would like to share.