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Views from the Choir Loft

The Worth of Waiting

Fr. David Friel · December 2, 2012

ROWING UP, my mom would drive us to school every morning. So my brother, two sisters, and I became very familiar with the route from our house to the parish grade school. Along the way, one of the things we would pass was a Methodist Church. I remember that every year, toward the end of the school year, that Methodist Church always put a sign out on their lawn advertising their annual Strawberry Festival. I probably didn’t think anything of it at first. But, as I got to be in fourth or fifth grade, I started to think about that a bit more. I wondered why on earth anybody would hold a festival to celebrate strawberries. Why would you? It made no sense to me.

I loved strawberries as much as the next kid, but I loved macaroni & cheese, too, and I never saw anybody hold a Macaroni-and-Cheese Festival. So I asked my mom about it, and she explained that strawberry festivals come from the days when you couldn’t get strawberries all year round. Strawberries are really only in season, in these parts, from about April through September. Thanks to improved technology & transportation & imports, I could go to the supermarket today—even in December—and buy a package of delicious-looking strawberries. Fresh strawberries used to be something you had to wait for, whereas you could have mac-and-cheese anytime. That’s why the festival developed: to celebrate the harvest and the return to strawberry season.

I’ve never known what it is to wait for strawberry season. I’ve never known a world in which I couldn’t go to the store and buy strawberries 365 days a year (and at a 24-hour store, no less!). In fact, if I don’t want to wait in line, most stores will let me go through a “self check-out” line to speed things up.

We’ve become so instant that we’ve lost the ability to wait. We make coffee in our Keurig’s, because we don’t want to wait for a pot to brew. We can’t wait to put the car in park before reading our text messages. It used to be a two-week trip to sail to Europe, but now I could be in Rome in time for dinner if I left right after breakfast. All of these advancements are good, in themselves, but they come with unintended side effects. One of those harmful side effects is that we’ve trained ourselves to reject waiting. I propose, however, that we need to rediscover the intrinsic worth of waiting.

The Church has the remedy for this. In her wisdom, she gives us Advent, the season of waiting for our Lord’s coming. I’ll bet you can remember a time when you got really excited for Christmas. Certainly, when you were a young kid, you knew how to look forward gleefully to Christmas. But, what about more recently? Has the whole experience dulled a bit? Has your childish excitement ever matured into an adult excitement for Christmas—the joyful anticipation that longs to see the face of Christ?

Advent is only a few short weeks, but it can be a terrific time to foster that mature excitement within our hearts. It’s not Christmastime yet; it’s Advent, and there are so many graces to be had in the stillness and the waiting. There will be a whole Christmas season, too, but we have to wait for it. That waiting is good for us. Really good waiting stretches us, and it helps us to better appreciate the thing for which we wait.

If we enter into Advent in this spirit of holy waiting, we’ll end up appreciating the Christmas mystery all the more. When we make our way here for Christmas Mass, we’ll see all the candles on the wreath lit and all our decorations hung. We’ll see poinsettias & angels & the manger, but, more importantly, we’ll feel the love of the Christ Child palpably in our hearts. We’ll be like the folks fifty years ago who went to the strawberry festival. After months of waiting, they could finally sink their teeth into a rich, fresh, perfectly ripe strawberry once again. I’ll bet you my grandmother knew how to appreciate a good strawberry when their season returned. We can experience something very similar if we embrace the opportunity to wait for Christ to come.

It’s almost a guarantee that, at some point in the next week, we’ll find ourselves standing in line someplace. Standing in line is something no one enjoys and something we all try to avoid. I challenge you, sometime this week, to wait in line and like it. Relish it! Instead of letting it become an occasion of sin or impatience or anger, use it as a moment of meditation. Thank Jesus for the gift of that moment, and—in a world that’s always rushing— thank Him for the opportunity simply to wait.

If we can find enjoyment in standing in line, we’ll be able to appreciate the grace of Advent waiting. And if we can appreciate Advent waiting, we’ll be better able to sink our teeth into the Christmas mystery.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Re: Low Mass: “It is desirable that in read Masses on Sundays and feast-days, the Gospel and Epistle be read by a lector in the vernacular for the convenience of the faithful.”

— 1958 document, issued under Pope Pius XII

Recent Posts

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  • Boston Auxiliary Bishop: “In offering the Traditional Mass for the first time, after removing the vestments, I knelt in the back pew and wept.”

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