Advent reading

During Advent I've been reading Watch for the Light, which contains selections from a variety of writers, one for each day of Advent.

So far, my favorite excerpt has been by Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, written while he was in prison shortly before he was executed by the Nazis.

Many of the things that are happening today would never have happened if we had been living in that movement and disquiet of heart which results when we are faced with God, the Lord, and when we look clearly at things as they really are. 83

The first thing we must do if we want to be alive is to believe in the golden seed of God that the angels have scattered and still offer to open hearts. The second thing is to walk through these gray days oneself as an announcing messenger. So many need their courage strengthened, so many are in despair and in need of consolation, there is so much harshness that needs a gentle hand and an illuminating word, so much loneliness crying out for a word of release, so much loss and pain in search of inner meaning. God's messengers know of the blessing that the Lord has cast like seed into these hours of history. 89

I also liked this quotation from Loretta Ross-Gotta's excerpt.

The intensity and strain that many of us bring to Christmas must suggest to some onlookers that, on the whole, Christians do not seem to have gotten the point of it.