The Child Leaped
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December 23, 2018“And who am I that the mother of my Lord should come and visit me?” (Lk 1:43)
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth shows us that Mary’s coming can quicken life in us, too. We, too, carry a Child within us. The presence of Christ in us is not something we always feel, but when his mother comes to us, we are gifted with an awakened sense of the Life stirring within. Who am I that she should come? And yet she does, and in spite of my hardness of heart, there is something moving in there.
From the writings of Caryll Houselander:
“It is not necessary at this stage of our contemplation to speak to others of the mystery of life growing in us. It is only necessary to give ourselves to that life, all that we are, to pray without ceasing, not by a continual effort to concentrate our minds but by a growing awareness that Christ is being formed in our lives from what we are. We must trust him for this, because it is not a time to see his face, we must possess him secretly and in darkness, as the earth possesses the seed. We must not try to force Christ’s growth in us, but with a deep gratitude for the light burning secretly in our darkness, we must fold our concentrated love upon him like the earth, surrounding, holding, and nourishing the seed.”
( The Reed of God, 45-46)
“Awareness of the presence of the Divine Child in us draws us off from every distracting and destructive preoccupation, such as self-pity, anxiety, irritability with other people, the morbidity which leads us to dwell more upon our own sinfulness than upon the beauty of God.”
( The Reed of God, 140)
