Light of lights! All gloom dispelling,

Thou first come to make thy dwelling

Here within our world of sight.

Lord, in pity and in power,

Thou didst in our darkest hour

Rend the clouds and show thy light.

Praise to thee in earth and heaven

Now and evermore be given,

Christ, who art our sun and shield.

Lord, for us thy life thou gavest,

Those who trust in thee thou savest,

All thy mercy stands revealed.

~St Thomas Aquinas

Watch for the Light, p.67

But December, if you choose, if you allow it, can be the trail through the woods that leads to the light, far off in the distance.

The darkness itself offers the gift. Each day, the darkness comes sooner, comes deeper, comes blacker than ink. It draws us in, into our homes, yes, but more so, into our souls.

It invites us: Light a light. Wrap a blanket. Sit by the fire. Stare into the flames, and onto the last dying embers. Consider the coming of Christmas.

Barbara Mahany

Slowing Time, p. 179

For she had learned to really pray. For the first time in her life she had discovered prayer to be not what it had hitherto been to her “the occupation of the praying mind or the sound of the voice praying,” but a ceaseless offering up of the whole personality, of every thought and word and action, as sacrifice.

Elizabeth Goudge

The Pilgrim’s Inn, p. 43

Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness comes sooner upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light…

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

John 12:35-36a, 46

Holy Bible, KJV