Staying Awake in Advent | November 30, 2025

This Advent season, I can’t help but wonder if the invitation to stay awake and be ready is an invitation into mindfulness. John Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “paying attention on purpose.” So for our purposes, a mindful Advent would be one spent paying attention to spiritual things. And truth be told, it is a fabulous place to start. Evelyn Underhill, a British mystic from the early 20th century, identified the first stage of the spiritual journey as “awakening,” or the soul becoming conscious to the reality of the divine.