Advent, Day 20

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly, vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,

Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

Words: Advent by Thomas Merton, written in 1946

Image: Annunciation (Detail) by Ruth Councell

Advent, Day 2

Advent Reflection from The Merton Institute

Merton's Voice:

Last night all I could think of was to give my will entirely to God and desire no light or consolation, but only His will. I chanted the psalms of Lauds thinking how the only thing that matters is the glory of God....[Journals 2:149-150]

The Bible NRSV:

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. [I Thessalonians 3:12]

Prayer:

I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. [Psalm 119:48]

Seen Above: "Fear Not" by Ruth Councell

Speaking His Own Name

"Unless He utters Himself in you, and speaks His own name in the center of your soul, you will no more know Him than a stone knows the ground upon which it rests in its inertia."

Words: Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation: 39.

Image: Viola by Ruth Councell

Burr Oak Leaf

by Ruth Councell

As I was beginning to draw this leaf [above] in a botanical art class, the instructor said, "Pay attention to the central vein of the leaf. It is through that vein that the leaf gets its life from the tree. The whole structure of the leaf is built off of that vein."

When I saw the leaf in that way, the drawing came much more easily and naturally.

And it occurred to me that this was about more than drawing leaves.

It was a reminder to me that by paying attention to the source of life, everything else will flow from it.

Words and Image by Ruth Councell, All Rights Reserved.

Advent's Fruit

"Contemplative waiting, purposeful waiting is what makes Christmas an experience rather than simply an event. It is a lesson meant to color the entire year." by Sr. Joan Chittister, read more here.

Seen above: "Pear Study" by Ruth Councell.