Our Life Together

Fourth Sunday.

A thought for the Christian at Advent by Thomas Merton –

“The soul of the [Christian] is a Bethlehem where Christ comes to be born — in the sense that Christ is born where His likeness is re-formed by grace, and where His Divinity lives, in a special manner, with His Father and His Holy Spirit, by charity, in this ‘new incarnation,’ this ‘other-Christ.’
The Advent Liturgy prepares that Bethlehem with songs and canticles of ardent desire…”
-pg. 417, The Seven Storey Mountain

A beautiful picture for the Advent season… something wonderful to dwell on. Truly, isn’t this what advent is all about?
As for that second part, I know we may not all have traditions that follow an advent liturgy. But just think what many of the Christmas hymns that you find yourself singing or hearing this time of a year are about… “canticles of ardent desire.” Ardent desire for what? It’s ardent desire for whom, rather; desire for Christ Himself.