INNKEEPERS
by Sr. Juliemarie McDonald, SND
Each year in Advent waiting time
we are the innkeepers of our souls.
Our souls are caves – damp, dark, and dingy.
In the smelly stables of our souls,
we house our own mice and spiders and crawly things.
Yet, Jesus, as in days of old,
still chooses such unlikely caves
in which to become incarnate.
Into these damp, dark, and dingy places
He descends as light
to burn bright,
to radiate the night.
Enfleshed once more in our humanness
taking on our human limitations
of littleness, simplicity, and childlikeness,
He craves to be cradled and crooned to again
by human hands and voices.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Come into the dark caves of our souls.
Be born again in our limitedness.
Infinity embrace our finiteness
to reach out through us
to others whose caves are also
dark, and damp, and dingy.
Shine through us, O Lord,
into this dark world of ours.
Light up the spaces of our souls once more
That we may be…
the stars that lead to new Bethlehems.
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