Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas Blessings to You
No one need spend Christmas alone. You could be with your family and friends. Failing that, you could be with the poor and needy. Either way, you could be singing, making merry, keeping festival, and thanking God for the gift of grace, incarnate in the Son, Jesus.
Leaving off the with the words of Christina Rosetti ...
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow on snow.
Snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Our God, heaven cannot hold him nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away, when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter, a stable place sufficed
the Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ.
Enough for him, whom cherubim worship night and day,
a breastful of milk and a manger full of hay.
Enough for him, whom angels fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel which adore.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air:
But only his mother in her maiden bliss
worshipped the Beloved with a kiss
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him, give my heart.
