The waiting is over

All of these things have tied together for me today:

I wonder, if we were to stop people at random in the street on December 24 and ask them what they want most for Christmas, how many would say, 'I want to see Jesus'?

I believe that the single most important consideration during the sacred season of Advent is intensity of desire. Paraphrasing the late Rabbi Abraham Heschel, 'Jesus Christ is of no importance unless he is of supreme importance.' An intense inner desire is already the sign of his presence in our hearts.

Source: Brennan Manning, Lion and Lamb : the Relentless Tenderness of Jesus

Don't You Sense Me?

I am, you anxious one.

Don't you sense me, ready to break
into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
Can't you see me standing before you
cloaked in stillness?
Hasn't my longing ripened in you
from the beginning
as fruit ripens on a branch?

I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am that wanting.
I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
And with the silence of stars I enfold
your cities made by time.

Rainer Maria Rilke Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

via nakedpastor.com

Advent complete.