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