Dear Middle School Families, 

The Advent season offers so many opportunities to pause and reflect amid a busy holiday and school season. I appreciate the many moments to stop and savor the moment both in and outside of the classroom.

On Tuesday, the entire Middle School had the opportunity to take part in a Courage Retreat hosted by Youth Frontiers. Typically, our seventh-grade students take part in this event, but in light of this year’s little virtue being courage, it seemed fitting that all of the students take part. Starting with Mass, the girls reflected on how courage shows up in their lives and how they can cultivate this virtue to become their best selves.

I look forward to celebrating the Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 at 9:05 a.m. as well as our Advent Prayer Service on December 18 at 9:05 a.m. We also host an array of holiday events. Please mark your calendars and join us for Vis the Season on Saturday, December 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Whereas we have made the decision to not host a fundraiser for Washington D.C. due to lack of expressed interest, the event does offer the opportunity to celebrate the season and buy Minnesota products made by members of the Visitation community and the broader Twin Cities. I also hope to see many of you at the Upper and Middle School VISTA Choir and Orchestra Christmas Concert on Sunday, December 7, from 4 to 5 p.m. It’s also a joyful time when we celebrate the Feast of Saint Nicholas. It is a joy to walk up and down the halls and see shoes filled with candy canes. 

Amidst the busyness of the holiday season, I am appreciative of the moments that we are welcomed to pause and reflect. Whereas I regret the shorter days, I am heartened by the twinkling lights of Christmas trees shining through windows as I drive home each day. Light in darkness: Christ’s arrival in the world. In this spirit, I would like to close by sharing a reading that I often return to in the season of Advent. For me, it speaks to the beauty of this time.

…

Evening meditation: Waiting
Reprinted from the Dec issue of "Give Us This Day": www.giveusthisday.org. " Rev. William Hart McNichols.
One of my favorite prayers is taken from a letter written by the French Jesuit, author, and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who died in 1955. It’s a passage urging the young recipient to be patient.
“Above all,” it begins, “trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.”
The prayer suggests patience in all things, especially patience with yourself.
Advent is a season centered on patience. The central image of Advent, after all, is an expectant mother: Mary carrying Jesus.
But this is not simply a dull wait, as you might wait for the traffic light to turn green at an intersection. It’s a hopeful waiting, confident that God is about to do something exciting and that whatever God brings will be more than you imagine.
Still, waiting can be hard. And perhaps the most difficult thing is waiting for yourself to change. We all have an image of who we hope to become one day: perhaps kinder, freer, more generous. And we don’t seem to get there. Or, rather, we don’t seem to get there fast enough.
In those times I always remember an experience on a retreat. I was lamenting to my retreat director that I wasn’t changing fast enough. I felt stuck.
“Look out that window,” he said. It was a summer’s day. “What color is that tree?”
“Green,” I said, referring to a large maple.
“What color is it in the fall?” he said.
“Red,” I said.
My retreat director said, “And no one sees it change.”
Trust in the slow work of God.
…

I wish you a blessed Advent season and Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,


Anna Bachman Barter, PhD
Director of Secondary Education