Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

The Season of Advent is an Orphan in the church liturgical year. Easter, Christmas, and Pentecost are the star-power celebrations as are, depending on the geographic location, feasts such as Saint Patrick's and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Lent, of course, is the observance that "outranks" all other observances. Just a mention of Lent calls to mind fast and abstinence, Stations of the Cross, and giving up stuff. But Advent?

Possibly because Catholics and other Christians are looking for weeks ahead to Christmas, which is a barn burner of both a religious and secular celebration, Advent seems something less than exciting.

Yet the season of Advent is rich in story, symbol, and, indeed, people. There is Mary, who from the moment she is told by an angel that she is to be the mother of God-made-human, looked joyfully through the troubles of her pregnancy to the birth of the child. Now, as the last month of that pregnancy begins, her joy must have been explosive. But she didn't expect to be a mother, so she must also have been filled with trepidation. In faith Mary had answered, "Thy will be done," but she was human, possibly quite young, and must have been worried about what to expect.

Then there was Joseph. Solid, straightforward Joseph who with enormous effort had finally overcome the shock he must have felt when he learned that his virgin wife was to have a child conceived by the Holy Spirit. If ever in history there has been a model of loving faith and patience, Joseph must be considered its exemplar.

And then there is one of the most interesting people in all of scripture, John the Baptizer. One of the most interesting and important people to the salvation story, yet one, perhaps, of the least known.

Tradition has it that John was a cousin of Jesus and was destined to prepare the way for the Lord. He went about preaching and baptizing and attracted many followers who would have, if he had let them, become his disciples. Yet with incredible humility, John spoke of Jesus as one whose sandals he was unworthy to loosen. Jesus himself reciprocated this humility when he presented himself to John to be baptized.

Today it may seem a stretch to find in the words, perhaps inspired of the Old Testament's prophet Isaiah, a helpful foundation for our understanding of Advent. Yet, in his recurring reference to the vigilance that the Jews of his time and Christians today maintain, Isaiah foresees both the temptation "on the way" and rewards ahead in the coming of Yahweh. Rousing the Jews in their Babylonian exile from their couch-potatoism, he calls them to action, as described by a contemporary spiritual writer:

"Isaiah alludes to the obligation laid on [the] Jewish peasants of assisting [their enemy] Persian engineers in building a road through the desert east of the Jordan. He urges them not to interfere with the work because this route can become for Yahweh the counterpart of the `Sacred Way' built by Babylon for the procession of the god Marduk. The latter had been accomplished by enormous feats of engineering. In any case, it is God's glory revealed to all mankind that it will one day be the escort of Jerusalem."

Vigilance, then, is a constant theme in the Advent and pre-Advent liturgy. The Lord is coming and we must rouse ourselves from the torpor of our secular pursuits to prepare a welcome for him.

The preparation may, perhaps, not be a moment too soon. We need only recall the apocalyptic warnings both from the Old Testament and from Jesus as told in Luke's gospel. "Cosmic torment, international strife, natural disasters, men will die," he predicts, "of the very fear of the awfulness of what will be happening." Sound familiar?

But God is merciful and sometimes the church is also. Jesus said after describing the horrors that lay ahead, "When these things take place ... your liberation is at hand." As for the church, right smack in the middle of Advental grimness it gives us Gaudete Sunday, a joyful celebration and a foretaste of the good things of Christmas ahead. Priestly vestments change from somber purple to rose-color sweetness.

Finally, along with the need for vigilance, another virtue recommends itself for the observance of Advent: patience.

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton has written eloquently: "All of life is an Advent, a waiting for something we're not completely sure of, but which we want desperately.

"But we are not good waiters.... We have instant coffee, microwave ovens, split-second copy makers.... Waiting has become an obsolete experience for so many people.

"Advent shows us how to wait [because] it is never a disappointment. The waiting is good, but it is never better than the event of Christ's birth. As the people of the Old Testament waited and were finally rewarded, so are we."