Ave Maria Meditations
Advent is the season of the seed: Christ loved this symbol of the seed. The seed, He said, is the word of God sown in the human heart.
“The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed”…
“So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the earth.”…
Even his own life blood: “unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remains alone.”…
The advent, the Seed of the world’s life, was hidden in Our Lady. Like the wheat seed in the earth, the Seed of the Bread of Life was in her. Like at the golden harvest in the darkness of the earth, the glory of God was shrined in her darkness.
Advent is the season of the secret, the secret of the growth of Christ, of divine love growing in silence. It is the season of humility, silence, and growth. For nine months Christ grew in His mother’s body. Buy His own will she formed Him from herself, from the simplicity of her daily life. She had nothing to give him but herself. He asked for nothing else. She gave Him herself.
Every beat of her heart gave Him His Heart to love with, His Heart to be broken by love. All her experience of the world about her was gathered to Christ growing in her. Sleeping in her still room, she gave Him the sleep of the child in the cradle. Breaking and eating the bread, drinking the wine of the country, she gave Him His flesh and blood; she prepared the host for the mass…
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. 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.
+Caryll Houselander (The Reed of God)
