In today's opening prayer, we ask that Christ may find us waiting eagerly in joyful prayer at his coming. Eagerness is not generally treated as a Christian virtue, yet under a different name, such as desire, longing, expectancy, it is undoubtedly a vital element of afervent Christian hope. Advent is, above all, a time of expectancy, a time of hope.

At any given moment in our modern world, there are dozens of wars and conflicts going on, and in some ways, it is not much different from Old Testament times. The Psalmist was inspired to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In his prayer, he mentions two motives for his prayer for peace. First, they are peace for his relatives and friends and second for the house of the Lord our God. Should a true and lasting peace be established in Jerusalem, the surrounding lands of Israel and Palestine, and the Middle East, that would be a great blessing for humanity. As Pope Francis prayed at the Wailing Wall of the ruined Temple during Advent, let us be eager to promote God's peace in the world.