It is a time of darkness - It is a time of faith

The following short bio is from Living with Christ: Caryll Houselander (1901-1954) was a lay English artist and poet who became one of the most popular spiritual writers of modern times. Born in Bath, England, she was baptized Catholic and raised in a family that thought very little of religion. She endured a difficult childhood and suffered from poor health and anxiety throughout her life. As she grew older, she discovered a passionate love for God and had deep insights into the spiritual life. Along with her gift for spiritual writing, Caryll was also a talented ecclesiastical artist and art therapist. In this issue, we reflect on the meaning of Advent as Caryll describes it in her best-selling spiritual classic, The Reed of God.

This time of Advent is absolutely essential to our contemplation too.

If we have truly given our humanity to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we do not disturb this 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 our darkness; nevertheless, we must believe that He is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannot 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.

In itself it is a purification, but without the tense resolution and anxiety of self-conscious aim.

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 prayer?

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.