Advent is about preparation and anticipation. Have you ever looked for something in vain, and then found it was right before you, perhaps on your very person (such as your glasses!). Advent's preparation and anticipation is all about our search for God. Often we search for him and fail to find him only because we have not realized his presence right there in our own souls.
Thomas Merton writes To find the Word in our heart we must enter into ourselves not so much by introspection as by compunction. This is important. The inward movement of compunction is not so much a matter of hiding ourselves within ourselves,as a liberation of ourselves, which takes place in the depths of our being, and lets us out of ourselves from the inside.
I would say that compunction cannot be realized without a certain introspection and self-reflection. Souls that possess these traits have amazing abilities to read beyond the face value of an incident or a situation. They do so because they pierce the darkness of a superficial world by their practice of silence. And in that silence, recognizing the spirit of God, they begin to mirror the goodness of God within their own soul.
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