Advent Calendar

Painting by Hildegarde of Bingen

Advent Calendar

by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

He will come like last fall's leaf fall. One night when the November wind has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth wakes choking on the mould, the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost. One morning when the shrinking earth opens on mist, to find itself arrested in the net of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark. One evening when the bursting red December sun draws up the sheet and penny-masks its eye to yield the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come, will come like crying in the night, like blood, like breaking, as the earth writhes to toss him free. He will come like child.