An Empty Cradle

"What is Holy Communion but Christ given to us, and we given to Christ, his words given to us to utter, his deeds to do, his beauty to reveal, his love to rejoice in, our littleness given to him?

"There are thousands of people with whom we come into contact who do not know Christ, who do not guess that he wants to be a brother, a lover, a child, a friend to them, who do not know that the gap, the emptiness they feel in their lives is there because God leaves it there on purpose, that they may hunger for his intimate presence, may accept the gift of himself!

"There is in every human heart, be it the heart of a man or a woman, an empty cradle, waiting for the birth of Christ to fill it. those who have him, those in whom he is born again day after day, have just this one work to do: to show the others that what they want, what they long for, is Christ."

~ Caryll Houselander