EarthBeat's 2022 Advent essays correspond to the Catholic Mass readings for each Sunday of Advent this year, with a focus on preparation, peace, patience and promise.
Crises can be opportunities to transform our hearts. God may be calling us into a new and deeper relationship with our neighbors, the earth, and with Godself that we just don't understand yet.
In the day's Mass readings, James asks us to "be patient" like the farmer who is waiting on the new life of crops. So how do we heed James' advice and be patient when God sometimes moves at the pace of a farmer's crop?
The past 17 months I have built a relationship with The Land, and it has taught me many lessons, like the peace described in the readings for the second Sunday of Advent is not a peace that comes without conflict.
A honeybee hive needs at least 60 pounds of honey to survive the winter. In this way, all their hoarding of honey from summer blooms has a purpose. With only 38 pounds of honey, I worry about my beehive.