As a chaplain one of the things I end up doing a lot of is asking questions. Today I heard one of those apocryphal stories which got me thinking about that a lot. 2 Priests had the privilege of meeting the Pope and asking questions of how to develop their faith and ministry. As they were both keen smokers they thought they would ask his Holiness about it .
The first went in and asked “Your Holiness should I smoke when I pray”? He came out looking sad with the response. The second went in and came out shortly later with a big smile on his face. ‘”What have you got to smile about” asked the first. “Well” said the second priest “I asked his Holiness if I should pray when I smoked?!”
As we think about advent and our season of waiting, perhaps we can think about reframing our Christmas expectations. What way should we ask our questions this year? Not just to get the answers we want but to be genuinely open to what it was God wants to say.
