For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. // Psalm 62:1
Have you been waiting for God to answer deep longings of your heart? Perhaps they concern your vocation or career. Or maybe you applied for a big college scholarship and are trying to entrust the uncertain outcome to the Lord. Are you waiting to meet your future husband? Are you seeking clarity on a health issue—for yourself or a loved one?
When Waiting Feels Like a Waste
Throughout life, we encounter many seasons of waiting. These seasons can feel more agonizing than intended, largely because the world has cultivated an intolerance for waiting. In our daily lives, we have become so reliant on overnight shipping, order-ahead coffee, express lanes, and drive-up shopping experiences that any amount of waiting feels like a squandered moment. And as a result, when God invites us to wait, we grow impatient. We wonder, What’s wrong? We tend to fill the void that waiting creates with busyness or distraction.
But perhaps that void is necessary. Without it, how can our hearts truly prepare Him room?
Advent: Learning to Wait in a World That Won’t
The liturgical season of Advent calls us to view waiting through the lens of faith. It invites us to slow down, to breathe deeply, to wait well. To watch quietly and prepare our hearts for what God is doing in the hidden womb of Mary, in the humble stable in Bethlehem, in the places in our own lives where we are still waiting.
This Advent, Blessed Is She invites us to “wait in joyful hope” by praying as a community with the new devotional, In Time: Living in the Now and Now Yet. Authored by Claire Dwyer, this devotional centers on the space in our hearts reserved for God—a space not meant for busyness, stuff, or distractions, but simply intended to remain open for Him.
Yet in a world that rushes to the next thing—Christmas before Halloween—it is challenging to stay present to this moment. It is hard to wait for Christmas when the world says, “Why bother waiting when we can celebrate now?”
Throughout this devotional, Claire reveals how waiting, from God’s perspective, is meant to be something sacred, something we can hold, something we can cherish in our lives. The devotional unfolds in a beautiful cadence:
- Week 1 // Our experience of waiting
- Week 2 // God’s timing
- Week 3 // How our story fits into His
- Week 4 // Entering the holy moment
Discovering Our Story Within His Story
As we journey through the Advent devotional, we will also rediscover God’s love for storytelling. Throughout His earthly life, Jesus taught through parables, and as we reread these stories through lectio divina this Advent, we will see just how much “they reveal about the timing of His coming and our experience of waiting.” And while there is a comprehensive story of salvation, we will recognize a particular story unique to each of us, which will unfold during our journey In Time.
- Each Sunday, Claire will introduce the week’s theme.
- Each Monday, we will pray with a different parable from the Gospels.
- Tuesday through Friday will include reflections and opportunities for personal meditation.
- And on Saturday, we will enter into a deeper experience of prayer.
Advent Resources for the Whole Family
In addition to this devotional for women, Blessed Is She is also offering Advent books for men and children.
For men, Feast: A Son’s Journey Home, centers on the parable of the Prodigal Son, found in the Gospel of Luke. Written by Paul George, it explores the depths of man’s identity, the merciful love of God, and the life-changing experience of feasting at God’s table.
Paul encourages men who pray with Feast this Advent to focus on the love of the Father, while committing to a daily time of prayer. He invites men to be content with where they are on their own journeys and to trust God along the way:
- Part 1 // Famine: Getting in Touch with our Desires for God
- Part 2 // Forge: Working our Way Home
- Part 3 // Father: Restoring our Relationship with the Father
- Part 4 // Feast: Living our Daily Life Around the Table with the Trinity
Within Feast, each day includes opportunities for prayer, meditation, spiritual exercises, and reflection questions to complete the experience.
For children, Watch and Wait by Olivia Spears accompanies Blessed Is She’s Advent devotional for women. It reveals God as Storyteller and how His story includes them. Each story that God tells unfolds in perfect timing. And when we play our role in God’s story, we are present to all that God has for us in this life and in our eternal life to come. Jesus modeled this for us when He came to us as a baby in “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4).
Each week in Watch and Wait, children will:
- Read Jesus’ parables
- Discover what His stories teach us about waiting
- Learn about Saints whose lives involved waiting
- Pray with sacred art
- Put their lessons into action
In addition to the three devotional books for the whole family, Blessed is She has curated some wonderful bundles for your Advent prayer time.
- Family Bundle (includes all three devotional books)
- Women and Kids Bundle (includes the devotionals for women and kids)
- Women and Men Bundle (includes the devotionals for women and men)
- Women's Bundle (includes a desk crucifix, rosary bracelet, and devotional)
Making Room for Him This Advent
This Advent, as the liturgy grows quiet and the readings and hymns more solemn, the Church invites us into hopeful waiting. As we recall the ancient story of waiting for the Messiah, let us also feel the longing in our own hearts for Him to come again—not just at the end of time, but this Christmas too. With each candle lit on our Advent wreath, may we remember that “by waiting and by calm [we] shall be saved, in quiet and in trust [our] strength lies” (Isaiah 30:15).
Let us not be afraid of the silence and stillness, even when the baking, wrapping, and decorating pull us into hurried activity. Instead, let us make room for Him.
Are you ready to wait differently this year?
Join us in embracing the quiet, the hope, and the holy anticipation of Advent.
Sarah Damm is the blog manager and a writer for Blessed Is She. She also is a frequent contributor to other faith-based platforms. Residing in Minnesota with her husband and six children, Sarah was a stay-at-home mom for 21 years, until she returned to the workforce in 2023. Sarah enjoys attending her kids' volleyball, football, basketball, or baseball games (depending on the season). She loves her faith, coffee, walks with her husband, and good books. Read Sarah's posts here. You can find out more about her here.
Walk with Us this Advent
Get Your Prayerful Planner
