Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress...

For to us a child is born
to us a son is given...

And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

The shadow of old words

It may have been that these old words of comfort and of joy had dimmed and receded yet they still carried weight when recalled; their seam when tapped, rich with prophetic vigour and mysterious contours.

Click here for the audio version of a reading by Rosamund Roberston.

He will come like last leaf's 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.

Advent calendar, Rowan Williams

See more here.