Thoughts at night

Every time we receive holy communion in a state of grace we are invited to be formed a little bit more into a cradle and a cross.

In order that the cross of Christ be formed in us, to have the courage for this, he comes to us in a cradle, rests in us, and resting in us forms in us his cross.

It is a source of never-ending delight to ponder that all theology is book-ended by the unutterable simplicity of the cradle and the cross - the cave and the tomb.

He asks of us in a silent moment for a silent collaboration. He asks us to forget criticisms, dramas, the high stakes that our self-referential formulas demand, to forget even the judging of ourselves; and to bring perfect love into a moment, which can only be his love.

We can only have charity when it is his cross alive in us, living in our death. Cradle becomes cross. Cross becomes cradle.