Every trace of light

So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling...
~ Malcolm Guite, from O Dayspring!

It's already night-time, at the end of the Winter Solstice: a pivotal day here in the northern hemisphere, when the darkness has reached its peak, and the light begins its slow, gradual ascendancy. And the day in which the Church proclaims Christ as O Oriens... O Dayspring... Radiant Dawn... Rising Sun... Morning Star. O Light, which begins to shine through our darkness...

How long has our world felt wearily, scarily wreathed in darkness? Certainly this year; but also during the years of Covid, death and lockdown, and the years which saw a rise in populism, violence and xenophobia. And before that, too. We need every glimmer and trace of light; every smallest gleam: we need the hope-bearing Light, shining however feebly, but with a strength which the darkness can never overcome.

We're also at the mid-point of the Fourth Week of Advent. In just a few days our Advent waiting will have ended, and we will welcome Christ, Love with and among us; we will welcome the One who is our Light, and the Light of our world. We will welcome the joy he brings us, his healing and his loving. May his radiant presence begin a grace in us, a beckoning and an irresistible, compelling calling.