This Advent, the fine folks at The Other Journal will be posting a "wide diversity of reflections on how communities are celebrating and encountering the advent of God made present in their lives."

Today's post ("Waiting with Mary: A Meditation on Luke 1:26–38, 47–55") is an essay by Isaac S. Villegas reprinted from Presence: Giving and Receiving by J. Alexander Sider and Isaac S. Villegas.

To have faith is to recognize that our waiting is a time of pregnancy. Mary teaches us how our waiting becomes the labor of the gospel in our lives. It’s not that God only comes to those who have faith. That’s not it at all. Our faith isn’t the permission God needs to get involved with us. God doesn’t wait for our faith or ask for permission. Instead, to have faith is to know that God waits with us. To have faith is to recognize that this laborious waiting is the coming of God. Our travail is the coming of God. We are overflowing with God, whether we believe it or not. God’s new life is always about to happen, even when it seems impossible.

Keep reading "Waiting with Mary" by Isaac S. Villegas at The Other Journal.