My daughter, who attends college on the mainland, turned 19 a few weeks ago. While it’s not the first time we’ve been apart on her birthday, I’m still rather new at distant-parenting. So that day found me in sappy, motherly over-drive as I reminisced about her childhood.

A favorite memory is an afternoon we spent gazing at clouds gently floating by, playing free-association games as their shapes morphed from dragon to polar bear to (oh no!) Barney the Dinosaur. It was a delightful mix of anticipation (“Quick, quick there it is!”), validation (“Oh yes, I see it!”), and dispute (“No way! That’s not what it is.”).

We loved every minute of it.

As she matured, what began as a game eventually became a comfortable communication pattern. Whether dealing with a stampede of pressing issues, or mundane ideas that gently floated by, we did our best to anticipate, validate, and work through disputes. Ordinary cloud watching was elevated to the extraordinary.

I take a similar approach as I prepare for Advent, focusing a critical lens on two ordinary words: know and realize. Any parent knows there is a palpable difference between the stubborn “I KNOW, Mom!” delivered with the obligatory eye roll, and the soothing “I now realize, Mom…” surrendered with a hug.

In Webster’s dictionary, to know is to be convinced or certain. To realize is to be fully aware. I had scarcely closed the dictionary when the ordinary began its rise to the extraordinary. Know and realize morphed into domains of cognitive and affective; head and heart; systematic catechesis and conversion.

Know

A few things I know about Advent:

n  We spend our time in prayer and anticipation of the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, not only at Christmas but at the Second Coming. We also acknowledge that Christ is present now.

n  Each of the four candles on the Advent wreath mark a Sunday in the season.

n  The four Sunday Gospels take on us a beautiful Advent journey:

§ On the first Sunday of Advent, Jesus’ instruction to “Be watchful! Be alert!” (Mk 13:33 - 37) is a call to live with an intentional awareness of God’s presence.

§ The second Sunday of Advent describes John the Baptist at the Jordan River as he prepared Jerusalem to encounter Christ, his actions mirroring Isaiah’s message to “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” (Mk 1: 1 – 8);

§ On the third Sunday of Advent, we again look to John the Baptist’s life and remember that the messianic age is here, that Christ is present in our lives and that we are to bring his light to the world (Jn 1: 6 – 8, 19 – 28);

§ The fourth Sunday of Advent brings the message of God’s plan of salvation, illuminated in the Annunciation. The courageous and faithful “yes” response of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lk 1:26 – 38) sets the tone for our own lives and begs the question: How do I, like Mary, bring Christ to the world?

Realize

What I’ve come to realize is that, while Advent is assigned its particular place in the liturgical year, its message defies chronology. To live an Advent life is to realize our Christian commitment and to participate daily in God’s plan for salvation. It is to realize that each of us is an Advent candle, set aflame by God’s word and renewed by the Eucharist. We bring his light to the darkness in the forms of compassion, community assistance, advocacy, companionship.

My day’s focus on two ordinary words led to extraordinary Advent insights. Try it for yourself. And may your Advent knowing be filled with great realization.