This Advent season, we’ve been taking a few quiet minutes each week to reflect on Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love — not as abstract ideas, but as lived realities.

This week, the focus is Love.

Not the loud, flashy kind.

Not the kind that arrives with certainty or spectacle.

But the kind that shows up while we’re still waiting.

This spoken-word reflection centers on Mary — on waiting, on trust, and on a love that doesn’t hesitate or hold back. Mary doesn’t wait for proof. She doesn’t speak in “someday” language. She sings in the past tense, trusting that when God speaks a promise, it’s already true.

And that matters, because we’re still waiting.

We’re waiting for wars to end.

For divisions to heal.

For hearts to feel whole again.

But Advent reminds us that love doesn’t always arrive with thunder. Sometimes it whispers in hospital rooms. Sometimes it sits beside a bed. Sometimes it shows up at a neighbor’s door or quietly wipes the table and sweeps the floor.

This reflection is an invitation to notice where love is already present — even now — and to trust that God’s love has come, and is still coming.

What you’ll hear in this reflection:

Why Advent waiting isn’t passive — it’s expectant

How Mary models trust before certainty

Why love doesn’t wait for the ending of the story

Where God’s love shows up in ordinary, quiet ways

What it means to be named Beloved before everything is resolved