The season of Advent is marked by waiting; waiting for Jesus’ birth and the feast of Christmas. But more importantly, it is a time of preparation. Waiting can be tedious, if the time is empty, with nothing to do. But a time of waiting marked by preparation seems to fly by. There isn’t enough time to do everything that is necessary. Our prayer can be similar. Prayer can just drag along or it can fly by depending on the intention of our heart and the attention of our minds. Prayer that is directed to and for God is rich and full even when you are working at clearing your mind and emptying your heart. When we are deliberately clearing our minds and hearts of our own thoughts and desires we should be doing all of this so that God can fill our minds and hearts. Even the simple task of “cleaning up” of our interior faculties of mind and heart becomes rich and beautiful. This task may be “simple” or uncomplicated, but it requires real work. Like preparing your house for special guests is real work as you do a deep cleaning, so preparing your mind and heart to receive Jesus is simple but hard work. So we should be filling our “waiting” time with the real work of preparation. Preparing to offer Christ our whole mind, heart and soul. Engaging all our strength to clear out our selfishness and preparing ourselves as a pure and spotless sacrifice to God. May God bless you in your preparations this advent.