Alliance for Catholic Education
Reflection by Evie Kenney, ACE Teaching Fellow
A few days ago, as I walked out of the high school where I teach, I was met with a pitch-black sky. My jaw dropped―I couldn’t quite believe it. It's only 6 p.m.! How did I completely miss the sun today?
I climbed into my car and turned on the radio to my usual after-school station, but for some reason the pop music playing felt a little jarring. The dark sky felt somber, and I needed music that provided more comfort than entertainment. I tuned the radio to the Christian music station. And on my drive home, while my eyes were filled with red brake lights against the night sky, my heart was filled with the comforting words of Scripture.
Advent can feel this way sometimes. The noise of advertisements and Christmas shopping can feel harsh in comparison to the quiet of colder, shorter days. In these moments of contrast, God invites us to lean into the stillness of this season.
Marty Haugen’s Advent hymn, My Soul in Stillness Waits, beckons us to sit in the darkness of the night, in the stillness, waiting for our Savior to enter our world. The lyrics of the hymn mimic the O Antiphons, prayers prayed in the days leading up to Christmas in which we invoke the names we call our Lord and ask Him to move in our broken world. In the first verse of this hymn, the cantor prays,
“For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits, truly my hope is in you. O Lord of Light, our only hope of glory, your radiance shines in all who look to you. Come, light the hearts of all in dark and shadow.”
I love these lyrics, for the same reason I love the O Antiphons. They remind us beautifully that God is the one on the move in this season, and all we need to do is be still. When we take time for silence, for stillness, we remember that we do not merit our Savior, but we receive Him as a gift freely given. When we sit in the darkness, we remember our own humility, and we marvel at the abundant generosity of our God.
Something about darkness begs our stillness. Maybe it’s the unknown within it that demands we slow down. Whatever it is, it invites us to turn to our Lord of Light, in whom there is no darkness, and ask Him to shine His radiance upon us.
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