Advent is the liturgical season of vigilance or, to put it more mundanely, of waiting. During the four weeks prior to Christmas, we light the candles of our Advent wreaths and put ourselves in the spiritual space of the Israelite people who, through many long centuries, waited for the coming of the Messiah: “How long, O Lord?” (Ps. 13:1).

Waiting is very hard for most of us. I suppose we human beings have always been in a hurry, but modern people especially seem to want what they want when they want it. We are driven, determined, goal-oriented, fast-moving. Waiting is especially hard when we see others experience, or experience ourselves, great struggles, anxieties, and sufferings. I am sure that every religious person, every believer in God, at some point wonders, “Why doesn’t God just straighten everything out? Why doesn’t the all-powerful and all-loving Creator of the universe simply deal with the injustice, suffering, violence, and sin that so bedevil his world?” 

We can hear precisely this cry in the prophets of ancient Israel. All of them—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Zechariah, etc.—utter some version of “How long, O Lord?” One form that this expectation takes is a yearning that the God of Israel would come to reign as king—which is to say, as one who has the power and authority to right every wrong. A passage from the fifty-second chapter of the prophet Isaiah speaks exactly in these terms: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, saying to Zion, ‘Your God is King!’” (Isa. 52:7). The prophet is envisioning the great day when Yahweh will take charge and set things right, when he will “bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations” (Isa. 52:10)—that is to say, roll up his sleeve, asserting his dominance over his enemies.

The fundamental message of Christmas is that this prophecy has come true—but in the most unexpected way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14). Jesus of Nazareth is not simply one more in a long line of prophets, not one more wisdom argure, not just another religious hero; rather, he is what Isaiah and his prophetic colleagues longed for: God himself in the flesh, come to rule. We know that kingly authority is involved in this enfleshment of God, for St. John reminds us: “What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:3–5). &e evangelist is telling us that the Word has come to fight an enemy, and the enemy will not prevail.

I hope this book—which includes reflections, poems, and prayers from across two thousand years of Catholic history—draws you more deeply into the mysteries of the Advent and Christmas seasons: Israel’s longing for the Messiah, the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin by the angel Gabriel, the Incarnation of God in Mary’s womb, the journey of Joseph and the Mother of God to Bethlehem, the Nativity of our Lord, and finally, the life of the Holy Family. In dwelling on these mysteries throughout this sacred time, may you come to a renewed encounter with the living reality of Christ, the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). 

Let us join the great men and women of our tradition, raising our eyes with vigilance for God’s salvation—and receiving in our hearts the amazing grace of his Incarnation.

His writing is featured at Word on Fire, Strange Notions, and Aleteia, and has also appeared in Inside the Vatican magazine and the Evangelization & Culture journal, and online at First Things, RealClear Religion, and The Catholic Herald. 

He has also contributed essays for Wisdom and Wonder: How Peter Kreeft Shaped the Next Generation of Catholics and The New Apologetics: Defending the Faith in a Post-Christian Era, and edited multiple books, including the Word on Fire Classics Flannery O’Connor Collection.

He lives in New York with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children.