When the time is not filled with a meaningful presence, waiting becomes unbearable. When the present moment remains completely empty—when all we can do is look for something to come, amd there is nothing at all in the here and now—every second is too long. And waiting is an intolerable burden when it remains completely uncertain whether we actually dare expect anything.

But when time itself is meaningful and each moment contains something valuable of its own, the joyful anticipation of something greater, something still to come, makes even more precious that which we already experience. And it gives us a kind of invisible force that bears us across the individual moments. The Christian Advent wants to help us attain this kind of waiting, forthis is the truly Christian form of waiting and hoping.