Advent Thoughts of Caryll Houselander
From Caryll Houselander's Reed of God come these thoughts on Advent.
She writes of Advent being the season of the seed. There are several passages in which Jesus speaks of the seed, and even unto His death: Unless the seed falling into the earth die, how shall the earth be sown?
"This time of Advent is absolutely essential to our contemplation....If we have truly given our humanity to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we do not distrub the time of growth. It is a time of darkness, of faith. We shall not see Christ's radiance in our lives yet; it is still hidden in the darkness; nevertheless, we must believe that He is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannnot help relating everything, literally everything to this almost incredible reality.
"This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer....
"How could it be possible that anyone who was conscious that Christ desired to see the world with his eyes would look willingly on anything evil? Or knowing that He wished to work with his hands, do any work that was shoddy, any work that was not as near perfection as human nature can achieve?
"Who, knowing that his ears must listen for Christ could listen to blasphemy or to the dreary dirtiness of so much of our conversation, or could fail to listen to the voice of a world like ours with compassion?
"Above all, who, knowing that Christ asked for his heart to love with, for his heart to bear the burden of the love of God, could fail to discover that in every pulsation of his own life there is prayers?
"This Advent awareness does not lead to a selfish preoccupation with self; it does not exclude outgoing love to others--far from it. It leads to them inevitably, but it prevents such acts and words of love from becoming distractions. It makes the very doing of them reminders of the presence of Christ in us."
We shall do all acts..."just for one thing, that our hands make Christ's hands in our life, that our sesrvice may let Christ serve through us, that our patience may bring Christ's patience back to the world."
Caryll continues, making the point that as Jesus was dependent upon Mary, in the womb, to take Him everywhere, so He is dependent upon us to take Him--in our hands, in our hearts and souls--to take Him everywhere with us.
She mentions Bl. Charles de Foucald, soldier-turned-priest-hermit in the Sahara desert. He knew and said that his time in the desert was worthwhile for just one thing: because he was there, the Sacred Host was there.
"It mattered nothing if the heroic priest could not utter the wonder that was in his heart; the Blessed Sacrament was there in the desert; Christ was there, silent, helpless, dependent on a creature; that which His servant could not utter in words, Christ would utter, in His own time, in silence."
Regarding this form of contemplation taught and shown by Our Lady, we, too, can experience:
"If Christ is growing in us, if we are at peace, recollected, because we know that however insignificant our life seems to be, from it He is forming Himself; if we go with eager wills, 'in haste,' to wherever our circumstances compel us, because we believe that He desires to be in that place, we shall find that we are driven more and more to act on the impulse of His love....
"It is not necessary at this stage of our contemplation to speak to others of the mystery of life growing in us. It is only necessary to give ourselves to that life, all that we are, to pray without ceasing, not be a continual effort to concentrate our minds but by a growing awareness that Christ is being formed in our lives from what we are. We must trust Him for this, because it is not a time to see his face, we must possess Him secretly and in darkness, as the earth possesses the seed. We must not try to force Christ's growth in us, but with a deep gratitude for the light burning secretly in our darkness, we must fold our concentrated love upon Him like earth, surrounding, holding, and nourishing the seed.
"We must be swift to obey the winged impulses of His Love, carrying Him to wherever He longs to be; adn those who recognize His presence will be stirred....They will know His presence, not by any special beauty or power shown by us, but in the way that the bud knows the presence of the light, by an unfolding in themselves, a putting forth of their own beauty.
"It seems that this is Christ's favorite way of being recognized, that He prefers to be known, not by His own human features, but by the quickening of His own life in the heart, which is the response to His coming."
"Every work that we do should be a part of the Christ forming in us which is the meaning of our life, to it we must bring the patience, the self-giving, the time of secrecy, the gradual growth of Advent....The permanency in it is the generation of Christ-life. That outlasts time itself. It is eternal.
"t is not only in work, in the realization of Faith, and in conscious prayer that we need the season of Advent; we need it in suffering, in joy, and in thought."
Houselander, Caryll. The Reed of God. 1944. New York: Sheed & Ward, pp. 40-48.
She writes of Advent being the season of the seed. There are several passages in which Jesus speaks of the seed, and even unto His death: Unless the seed falling into the earth die, how shall the earth be sown?
"This time of Advent is absolutely essential to our contemplation....If we have truly given our humanity to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we do not distrub the time of growth. It is a time of darkness, of faith. We shall not see Christ's radiance in our lives yet; it is still hidden in the darkness; nevertheless, we must believe that He is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannnot help relating everything, literally everything to this almost incredible reality.
"This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer....
"How could it be possible that anyone who was conscious that Christ desired to see the world with his eyes would look willingly on anything evil? Or knowing that He wished to work with his hands, do any work that was shoddy, any work that was not as near perfection as human nature can achieve?
"Who, knowing that his ears must listen for Christ could listen to blasphemy or to the dreary dirtiness of so much of our conversation, or could fail to listen to the voice of a world like ours with compassion?
"Above all, who, knowing that Christ asked for his heart to love with, for his heart to bear the burden of the love of God, could fail to discover that in every pulsation of his own life there is prayers?
"This Advent awareness does not lead to a selfish preoccupation with self; it does not exclude outgoing love to others--far from it. It leads to them inevitably, but it prevents such acts and words of love from becoming distractions. It makes the very doing of them reminders of the presence of Christ in us."
We shall do all acts..."just for one thing, that our hands make Christ's hands in our life, that our sesrvice may let Christ serve through us, that our patience may bring Christ's patience back to the world."
Caryll continues, making the point that as Jesus was dependent upon Mary, in the womb, to take Him everywhere, so He is dependent upon us to take Him--in our hands, in our hearts and souls--to take Him everywhere with us.
She mentions Bl. Charles de Foucald, soldier-turned-priest-hermit in the Sahara desert. He knew and said that his time in the desert was worthwhile for just one thing: because he was there, the Sacred Host was there.
"It mattered nothing if the heroic priest could not utter the wonder that was in his heart; the Blessed Sacrament was there in the desert; Christ was there, silent, helpless, dependent on a creature; that which His servant could not utter in words, Christ would utter, in His own time, in silence."
Regarding this form of contemplation taught and shown by Our Lady, we, too, can experience:
"If Christ is growing in us, if we are at peace, recollected, because we know that however insignificant our life seems to be, from it He is forming Himself; if we go with eager wills, 'in haste,' to wherever our circumstances compel us, because we believe that He desires to be in that place, we shall find that we are driven more and more to act on the impulse of His love....
"It is not necessary at this stage of our contemplation to speak to others of the mystery of life growing in us. It is only necessary to give ourselves to that life, all that we are, to pray without ceasing, not be a continual effort to concentrate our minds but by a growing awareness that Christ is being formed in our lives from what we are. We must trust Him for this, because it is not a time to see his face, we must possess Him secretly and in darkness, as the earth possesses the seed. We must not try to force Christ's growth in us, but with a deep gratitude for the light burning secretly in our darkness, we must fold our concentrated love upon Him like earth, surrounding, holding, and nourishing the seed.
"We must be swift to obey the winged impulses of His Love, carrying Him to wherever He longs to be; adn those who recognize His presence will be stirred....They will know His presence, not by any special beauty or power shown by us, but in the way that the bud knows the presence of the light, by an unfolding in themselves, a putting forth of their own beauty.
"It seems that this is Christ's favorite way of being recognized, that He prefers to be known, not by His own human features, but by the quickening of His own life in the heart, which is the response to His coming."
"Every work that we do should be a part of the Christ forming in us which is the meaning of our life, to it we must bring the patience, the self-giving, the time of secrecy, the gradual growth of Advent....The permanency in it is the generation of Christ-life. That outlasts time itself. It is eternal.
"t is not only in work, in the realization of Faith, and in conscious prayer that we need the season of Advent; we need it in suffering, in joy, and in thought."
Houselander, Caryll. The Reed of God. 1944. New York: Sheed & Ward, pp. 40-48.
posted by The Catholic Hermit | 6:07 AM
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