But now it is true that in three days, Christmas will come once again.  The great transformation will once again happen.  God would have it so.  Out of the waiting, hoping, longing world, a world will come in which the promise is given.  All crying will be stilled.  No tears shall flow.  No lonely sorrow shall afflict us anymore or threaten.
                                                       Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sermon to a German-speaking church, Havana Cuba, December 21, 1930

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before…. What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.
                        --Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas

As you journal, reflect on how difficult it is to: “So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold.
Wonder.”  Why is so?

As you prepare for prayer, reflect on this passage:
As soon as we are alone, inner chaos opens up in us. This chaos can be so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again. Entering a private room and shutting the door, therefore, does not mean that we immediately shut out all our inner doubts, anxieties, fears, bad memories, unresolved conflicts, angry feelings, and impulsive desires. On the contrary, when we have removed our outer distraction, we often find that our inner distraction manifests themselves to us in full force. We often use the outer distractions to shield ourselves from the interior noises. This makes the discipline of solitude all the more important.”
the more important.”
-- Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New and Other Classics

Practice lectio divina using:
We live always during Advent.  We are always waiting for the messiah to come.  The messiah has come, but is not yet fully manifest.  The Messiah is not fully manifest in each of our souls, not fully manifest in humankind as a whole:  that is to say, that just as Christ was born accordingly to the flesh in Bethlehem of Judah, so he must be born accordingly to the spirit in each of our souls.
--Jean Danielou