Wherefore we have always held that God is the Father of His only-begotten Son, who was born indeed of Him, and derives from Him what He is, but without any beginning, not only such as may be measured by any divisions of time, but even that which the mind alone can contemplate within itself, or behold, so to speak, with the naked powers of the understanding. And therefore we must believe that Wisdom was generated before any beginning that can be either comprehended or expressed. And since all the creative power of the coming creation was included in this very existence of Wisdom (whether of those things which have an original or of those which have a derived existence), having been formed beforehand and arranged by the power of foreknowledge; on account of these very creatures which had been described, as it were, and prefigured in Wisdom herself, does Wisdom say, in the words of Solomon, that she was created the beginning of the ways of God, inasmuch as she contained within herself either the beginnings, or forms, or species of all creation. (Book II, Part 2)

The use of the feminine for Wisdom is common across the ancient world. This identification of the feminine with the Christ is evocative.

Before the beginning was God and Wisdom, father and mother, male and female, and - somehow - father and son as well, each and all of one being.

This strikes me as speculative - and derivative as well - but when gently offered these images help us engage the awesome mystery of the ultimate reality we call God.

Today is the feast day of Thomas - apostle, teacher, and evangelist - with whom I have long had a particular sense of relationship.

This very early morning I have arisen to see a total eclipse of the moon, the first since 1638 to coincide with the winter solstice.

Today will be the darkest day of the Northern year. But especially as the moon is eaten up by the earth's shadow, with a short sun on a cold day, and in a world full of trouble we watch expectantly for light everlasting.