Though the autumn Jewish holiday season is long over now, the Christian holiday calendar is just getting going -- today's the first Sunday of Advent, the four weeks of expectation leading up to Christmas. In honor of the occasion Karen of Kinesis has posted a beautiful poem by Thomas Merton, and Real Live Preacher is talking about a new Advent devotional authored by godbloggers.

Though Advent marks time on a liturgical calendar I don't share, I enjoy it in a kind of vicarious way. It's not hard to relate to the incremental increase of light represented by the candles of the Advent wreath, and the contemplative in me thrills at the prospect of any holiday that's preceded by weeks of spiritual preparation. I like the anticipation of it, even though the incarnation it's anticipating doesn't fit my theology.

I had a long blog post in mind about this -- and then I re-read last year's post on the subject, and realized the post I had in mind is one I've already written. So I'll just point you there: Advent.

(And yes, I'll be off this afternoon for the community Messiah-sing again. I haven't been able to sing with a chorus this year, so I'm especially excited about the chance to lend my voice to a communal song...)

Technorati tags: religion, Christianity, Advent.