More on Waiting during the First Week of Advent

"Christian practice can be summed up by the word patience. In the New Testament patience means waiting for God for any length of time, not going away, not giving in to boredom or discouragement."
--Thomas Keating, Cistercian priest & monk

"O God, you are my God,
I seek you and my soul thirsts for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."
--Psalm 63:1

"You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you."
--Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet

"O Lord, how long? Will you forget me forever?
Will you hide your face?
Must I counsel myself? Take counsel in my own soul?
How long?" ---Psalm 13

"Follow him through the land of unlikeness:
You will see rare beasts and have unique adventure."
--W.H. Auden from "Christmas Oratorio"

"Have you not heard his silent steps?
He comes, comes, ever comes.
Every moment and every age, every day and every night
he comes, comes, ever comes.
Many a song have I sung in many a mood of mind,
but all their notes have always proclaimed,
'He comes, comes, ever comes.'
In the fragrant days of sunny April through the forest path
he comes, comes, ever comes.
In the rainy gloom of July nights on the thundering chariot of clouds
he comes, comes, ever comes.
In sorrow after sorrow it is his steps that press upon my heart,
and it is the golden touch of his feet that makes my joy to shine."
---Rabindranath Tagore

"We have waited in silence on your loving-kindness, O God." ---Psalm 48:8