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.
