During this tender time of Advent...

One of the books I am using this Advent has been on my bookshelf. It is a small book called Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany with Caryll Houselander and is edited with Scripture selections ad comments by Thomas Hoffman. It was published by Sheed and Ward in 2000. I first read Caryll Houselander's The Reed of God when I was still in High School and I have loved it ever since. Here is an extract:

"When a woman is carrying a child she develops a certain instinct of self-defense.It is not selfishness; it is not egoism. It is an absorption into the life within, a folding of self like a little tent around the child's frailty, a God-like instinct to cherish, and some day to bring forth the life. A closing upon it like the petals of a flower closing upon the dew that shines in its heart.

This is precisely the attitude we must have to Christ, the Life within us, in the Advent of our contemplation....

By his own will Christ was dependent on Mary during Advent; he was absolutely helpless; he could go nowhere but where she chose to take him; he could not speak; her breathing was his breath; his heart beat in the beating of her heart.

Today Christ is dependent upon us. This dependence of Christ lays a great trust upon us. During this tender time of Advent we must carry him in our hearts to wherever he wants to go, and there are many places to which he may never go unless we take him." The Reed of God, pp.30-31