Early in the morning, the hotel lobby is a very comfortable place to read Morning Prayer with a cup of coffee close at hand (and it means I won’t disturb Lovely Wife, who is still asleep in the room).

I will admit, however, that it is tough to read Psalm 62:1 — “For God alone my soul in silence waits / from him comes my salvation” — while Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” wafts from the speakers above my head.

Nevertheless, the brief time apart provides space for God’s “daily visitation,” in the lovely phrase from our collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent:

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP 212)

What small space of inner silence might you need to create in the middle of this holiday whirl, making room for God to visit so that you are “a mansion prepared” for Jesus’ coming?