Advent: A Time for Listening

A few weeks ago I sat on a folding chair among a circle of women. When I read the first question from the sheet I held in my hands, a petite, middle-aged woman on my left, her thin hair pulled back into a sparse ponytail, hands clutched tightly together in her lap, launched into a long litany of complaints and lament — a story of illness, suffering, depression, and anxiety that burst from her in a breathless torrent.

The other women in the circle nodded sympathetically. I nodded, too, and tr...