Dec
06
2006
An excerpt from Caryll Houselander’s, “Lift Up Your Hearts“:
“We shall sometimes be surrounded by forces that threaten the inward life, forces stronger than we are ourselves. But though only faith can convince us of this, they are not so strong as the unheard, unseen, unfelt, unimaginably sensitive Christ-life within us, that is stronger than the storming, parching, freezing or blighting of any possible environment.
We must not abandon the struggle that the secret growing demands, or doubt its purpose: the getting up early on dark mornings for mass when our presence at mass has become only a losing fight with distractions, the offering of our daily work to form Christ in us when the monotony of our daily work makes it seem incapable of any meaning at all.
But neither must we refuse the slumber, the repose, of the winter time of growth, the stillness, the silence, the acceptance of the times set by God, God’s law of growth, the contented folding of our life upon the hidden life within us.”
Taken from the section called “Advent – Growth“
Dec
05
2006
Advent
Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full! 
The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe. Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.
Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.
Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets’ stately setting.
Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!
Thomas Merton (1946)
Dec
04
2006
During Advent, a time of wonder and waiting, we might take a lesson from the children, amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations. Here is a little excerpt from the book, Born Contemplative: “Two friends of mine were sitting on the sand at Whitley Bay while Katie, the two-and-a-half-year old daughter of one of them, occupied herself nearby. Having found a gull’s feather she spent a long time looking at it, feeling it and turning it every way. She then rested it on the water and watched it being carried a little way away and then being brought back on a wave. She picked it up again and continued to play with it like this for the best part of half an hour. The two friends were forcibly struck by the sheer wonder which had taken possession of that child for so long, and they realized how much they, as adults, were missing out on. They had, however, provided this wonderful opportunity for Katie just TO BE, without interference, in communion with the universe.” (
Sister Madeleine Simon)
One of my wishes for all of us this Advent is that we may find a little bit of time every day just “to be” – to watch the sparrows and chickadees at the birdfeeder, to admire a pinecone as we fashion a wreath, to gaze at the intricate frost patterns on our windows, or whatever captures our fancy and sense of wonder in our part of the world. May we be a little bit as children, as we await the coming of the Christchild.
