Advent is Gestation

 Caryll Houselander

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. There must be a period of gestation before anything can flower. 

If only those who suffer would be patient with their early humiliations and realize that Advent is not only the time of growth but also of darkness, and of hiding and waiting, they would trust, and trust rightly, that Christ is growing in their sorrow, and in due season all the fret and strain tension of it will give place to a splendor of peace.

The Reed of God