Some of us walk into Advent
     tethered to our unresolved yesterdays
         the pain still stabbing
         the hurt still throbbing
It’s not enough to know better’
    it’s just that we can’t stand up anymore by ourselves.
On the way to Bethlehem,
Will you lend a hand?
                                                                                                             --Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

The day after Thanksgiving the New York Times told of a 33-year-old local cab driver whose shoulder-length hair was tied in a ponytail.  About 5 years ago. This cabby “prayed to God for guidance on how to help the forgotten people of the streets who exist in life’s shadows.”  As he recalls it, God replied: “Make eight pounds of spaghetti, throw it in a pot, give it out on 103rd Street and Broadway with no conditions, and people will come.”  He did, they came, and now he goes from door to door giving people food to eat.
I am not asking you to stuff the Big Apple with spaghetti.  But a New York cabby can bring light into your Advent night.  He prayed to a God who was there; he listened; he gave the simple gift God asked of him; he gave “with no conditions”; and people responded.  Here is your Advent:  Make the Christ who has come a reality, a living light, in your life and in some other life.  Give of yourself…to one dark soul…with no condition.
Prompt:  What would it mean to give with no condition?   

Do a prayer walk.  As you walk empty your thoughts.  Slowly introduce the question, “Where can I lend a hand.”  Breathe in the question.  Breathe out silence.  See what comes to you during your walk.

Practice lectio divina using:
Advent is a time of rousing.  We are shaken to the very depths, so that we may wake up to the truth of ourselves.  The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent is renunciation, surrender.  We must let go of all our mistaken dreams, our conceited poses and arrogant gestures, all the pretenses with which we hope to deceive ourselves and others.  If we fail to do this, stark reality may take hold of us and rouse us forcibly in a way that will entail both anxiety and suffering.
--Alfred Delp