Christ came, and comes now, so that we should have life and have it in its fullness . . . He is the Father and Mother whose heart never sleeps, whose hands never lift from their works that they have made. He is the one who has numbered the hairs on our heads. In his humanity, we are clothed as in a warm woolen garment. In him we live as in our home. He is our food and our drink, our shade in the heat, our comfort in sorrow, our healing when we are wounded, our light in darkness.

– Caryll Houselander

We should never despair, even in our darkest hours. We should remember that God shares our life, that through the Holy Spirit we can be on the most intimate terms with God and that He is always there, when outward pressure is at its worst, helping us to carry our burdens over the roughest places on our weary road. . . When faith wavers, hope disappears, love grows cold, adoration ceases, doubt nags and the whole life is shrouded like a winter landscape in snow, when hatred and arrogance predominate, life is mortally wounded. That is the time to get into reverse and let the Holy Spirit work from within, building up a new life. . .The Holy Spirit constantly helps me over my hurdles in the small hours.
– Father Alfred Delp

Father Alfred Delp was a German Jesuit priest who was arrested for being part of the Nazi Resistance. While in prison in Berlin, he wrote reflections on the holy season of Advent, Christmas, and other spiritual topics. The Gestapo offered him his freedom in return for leaving the Jesuit Order but he refused to do so. He was executed on February 2, 1945. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered over a sewage field, by order of the Nazis.

In life and in death, keep close to Jesus and give yourself into his faithful keeping; he alone can help you when all others fail you. He is of such a kind, this beloved friend of yours, that he will not share your love with another; he wishes to have your heart for himself alone, to reign there like a king seated on his rightful throne. If only you knew the way to empty your heart of all things created. If you did, how gladly would Jesus come and make his home with you. When you put your trust in men, excluding Jesus, you will find that it is nearly all a complete loss.

– Thomas à Kempis

The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in our listening, here and now. The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the Word? Where do I discern the healing hand of God touching me through the Word? How is my sadness, my grief and my mourning being transformed at this very moment? Do I sense the fire of God’s love purifying my heart and giving me new life? These questions lead me to the sacrament of the Word, the sacred place of God’s real presence.

– Henri Nouwen

God has made us and takes responsibility for what he has created. He takes responsibility for the history of this world and even for every single person’s life. He has enveloped us in his grace, his love, and his faithfulness. When we bring our past and our worries, with all our foibles and weariness, into the new year, our faithful and merciful God goes with us. . . So, let us say goodbye to the past year. It was a year of the Lord, a year of grace, a year of inner growth, even if we did not feel it. After all, God’s strength achieves victory in our weakness. Thus, we really can praise God at the end of the year, and thank him, and give him honor, for he is good, and his mercy is everlasting.

– Karl Rahner

Our Lord asks us to let the life continue in us that he began on earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Let him live in us; let his hidden life in Nazareth continue in us; let his life of universal charity continue in us; let his life of humility be prolonged in us. Let Jesus continue to light a fire on the earth by making each moment of our lives become moments of his life – all our thoughts, our words, and actions become thoughts and words and actions that are no longer natural or human, but Divine, no longer our own but those of Jesus.

– Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Christ rested in Mary – still, silent, helpless, utterly dependent. The Creator trusted himself to his creature . . . His hands were folded; her hands did the work of his hands. His life was her life; his heartbeat was the beating of her heart. This was a foreshadowing of what the Incarnation would mean for us; for in us, too, Christ rests as he rested in Mary. From the moment when the Christ-life is conceived in us, our life is intended for one thing, the expression of his love, his love for God and for the world. Our words are to be the words he wants us to speak; we must go to wherever he wants to go, we must see and look at whatever he wants to see and look at; the work that our hands do must be the work that his hands want to do; our life must be the living of his life, our loves, the loving of his heart.

– Caryll Houselander

Keep the transcendent dimension of your life burning bright through prayer and sacrament, through love and peace, mercy and justice. It changes every fiber of your being when the transcendent is your priority. Live for God. Nothing else is worth it.

Father Matthew Kelty O.C.S.O.

Just as nature retreats deep into itself during the winter months, so the Christian is invited to turn inward during the blessed time of Advent in preparation for the Lord’s coming. . . Advent is a quiet, contemplative time of waiting for the Light that will come and shine on us on Christmas Day, rescuing us from the great darkness and hopelessness we experience in our daily lives.

– Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

Advent is the season. . .of the growth of Christ, of Divine Love growing in silence. It is the season of humility, silence, and growth. 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. It is this attitude which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer. . .It 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. We need it in everything that is to bear fruit in our lives.

– Caryll Houselander