The snail is better than its reputation. It may be slow, but it can cover more than four metres an hour. When people say it is boring, they are right, because it takes a long time – not a hectic pace, as we often do. The snail retreats into its own snail shell, where it can be completely alone.
Advent is a time when we can recharge our batteries and come to ourselves.
I associate the snail with PATIENCE. A patient person has the ability to wait and/or to endure something difficult. For the Czech professor and priest Tomàs Halík, who was secretly ordained as a priest, patience is essential for our spiritual life, for so he says: Faith is patience with God, hope is patience with me and love is patience with our neighbour.
In the coming Advent, let us look at the snail to learn a little more patience from it and thus experience the arrival of God in our world and time with faith, hope and love.
Sr Beate Neuberth CJ
