Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
Advent Pictures of Christ

Advent Pictures of Christ

Last updated on: March 10, 2017 at 11:56 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

Advent Pictures of Christ 2017-03-10T23:56:22+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Snowflake Photos from SnowCrystals.com

I know I need to be careful how I say this.

Yes, they’re snowflakes.

But when I first saw these pictures, all I could think of was: Look! Pictures of Christ!

Pictures of perfection, they remind us of the joyful Antiphon for a Monday’s vespers: “yours is more than mortal beauty; every word you speak is full of grace.”

They are -in a sense- pictures of Christ in Glory.

He is the image of the invisible God,
the first-born of all creation.
In him everything in heaven and on earth was created,
things visible and invisible.

All things were created through him;
all were created for him.
He is before all else that is.
In him everything continues in being
— Col 1:12-17

The Christ is the firstborn of all creation -he is the prototokos– the primacy is his, and he is the first of all that is brought or may be brought.

And so, this snow, these miraculous, singular snowflakes -each exceptional as your own fingerprints- have been brought into being, by Christ, by whose glorious light they are made.

I think of Christ’s primacy as being akin to the old flashbulbs we used in cameras; there would be a blinding flash of light, and then something would come of it. Christ is the flash of light but because there are no negatives in Christ his light brings clarity, not an aching blind spot. His Holy Light is the consent – every “yes” that allows life to blossom, rather than shrivel or suffocate and die. As John tells us in the beginning of his Gospel, without that Light, nothing exists. Life is carried on it, the way it is carried, joyfully, in the fizzy mist of the Shekinah.

Perhaps this can better explain what I mean:

I watched an incredible woman generously, disinterestedly and most helpfully console another woman who was in major emotional distress. And that time, when I saw the mist, I also thought…here is Christ, poured forth like a libation.

Although Christ was in the kindness, and in the assist, it was the mist I was writing about; it flowed from woman to woman, warm and aglow with love, and it shimmered and moved, pouring forth and through even the tiniest of their psycho-spiritual openings. The mist, and the light, they were alive.

In his primacy, Christ is the light, yes. But also, Christ is the “let there be” Light.

Try to put that first image of the flashbulb into your head. There is a flash of light; his Divine “yes” and then, things come to be, because his light, his assent, came first.

A flash -a Divine “yes”- and a new life is formed. Flash! A new crocodile. Flash! A litter puppies. Flash! Maggots and flies. Flash! Springtime flowers. Flash! A new infant is conceived, life assented to, allowed to be created, thanks to the light; thanks to the “yes.”

Without the flash that is his light – nothing! Nothing comes because nothing is brought. No life.

Considered in this way, the mystery of Christ being the “firstborn of all creation” in whom “we live and move and have our being” becomes accessible. What also becomes accessible is the concept of evil and corruption in those acts which work to hinder the light -to stop what God has, by his love, consented into being.

How the Evil must dance when a new life is disallowed, shredded in utero, and the flash, the “yes” snuffed out. How Evil must smile in content when the means by which God permits us to assist in creation are waylaid, or purposely directed toward what is only decaying, and corrupted and utterly dead.

It was only when I came to understand that Christ is truly “the first born of all creation” and therefore the very flash and thrust of all creation, that I came to understand the notion of things ordered, and disordered. It is less about design and physicality, than about turning a “yes” into a “no,” life into death, being into non-being, light into dark.

The only way the Evil can stop what the Light of Christ has put into motion is with our help. We are destructors in big and little ways. We kill our bodies, or our children. We kill their little psyches. We beat each other up with guilt and sly manipulations, or the serpent’s hissing gossip. We look at what we should condemn, and look away when we ought not. We give an unrealized assist, then, to what is anti-Christ, anti-light, anti-life, anti-God-all-good; we help to plunge the world into a darkness bleak, and cold.

The snowflakes are ordered -they are visibly, perfectly ordered- like Christ. And as with Christ, you can see the whole world in them. Butterflies, and flowers, dragonflies, and stingers and crescents; stars, arrows and feathers and leaves; sand dollars, beetles,and tents and cathedrals and even people. This snowflake looks like it is just crammed full of people.

And in each of those snowflakes, I see the cross, the speartip, the pillar, the stone, the star that led shepherds and kings, and a mother’s pierced heart, too.

In the scriptures, we hear of rivers laughing, cedars clapping, water creatures praising God. Thomas Merton talked about seeing humanity going about “shining like the sun.” St. Therese Couderc wrote of seeing the luminous “goodness” lingering aglow upon all creation.

They are all talking about the same thing -this primal light of Christ- the light that came before any thing, before any body, and which remains, throughout. It is a light that can only willfully be extinguished, and even then, the merest surviving ember may still attract his mercy and love, and blaze anew. Like finds like. Light reflects.

When we see the snowflakes we can even better appreciate St. Patrick’s Breastplate, and his prayer to the Christ -in all things seen and unseen- all around:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Think about that, next time you’re caught in the snow.

And don’t our Anglican brothers and sisters surely know how to do Advent Vespers?

Italy does Christmas

Advent 2009

Anglican-Roman Reconciliation

Previous Post

December 7, 2009

My apologies

Next Post

December 8, 2009 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Paul's original name?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Levi Simon Saul Matthias