Waiting…. we've all done it… and we each wait for something or someone each and every day of our lives… and we will continue to wait.

Waiting tries our patience, it makes us anxious, it frustrates us and, anyway, why doesn't that person if front of us just hurry up.

We can use our time usefully while waiting or see it as nuisance.

A lot of our waiting happens in line-ups. Recently, I went to London, England. I waited in lines for everything.

When I went to get my passport renewed I waited in line to be told I was in the right line, then I waited in another line to show my documentation, then waited in yet another line to see the person who would send off my application.

The reason they do that, I assume, is that people show up at the

wrong office, or get into h e wrong line or hey don't have the proper documentation.

The airport has the lineup down to a fine art. You line up to check your baggage, you line up to get into passport control, you line up in the passport control line, you line up to get on to the plane and that, you think, is the last line,

but it isn't. When you have checked through the ticket agent at the gate, you think you've finally

made it, only to round the corner to the ramp to find to see a line with everyone who went before you stretching far into the distance.

When I got to England, it was great because there were no lines, there were cues.

The 1st Sunday of Advent (November 29) began a season of expectation, a season where we focus on waiting. There is an art to waiting and we can put that time to good use. It is called "watchful living".

When I'm waiting sometimes I'll read a book, sometimes I work on a sermon in my head, and sometimes I would get to talking to someone about my faith.

Jesus says, "Beware, keep alert" and later, "Watch" (Mark 13: 24-37). Watchful living has less to do with speculation about the end of the world - we've had plenty of that and there will be plenty to come - and more to do with carrying out our ministry.

Readiness has as much to do with being ready for life as it has to do with its end. Now is the time to use our gifts for further God's Kingdom: our time, treasure and talents.

Advent is a time of expectation, a time of waiting, a time to do the work of ministry given us.

Jesus' last words become our first words in the Church's new year, a call to be awake to what is happening in our world and to be looking for the one who comes in our lives now and in the time to come.