Monthly Archives: December 2012

may His melody surround us as we face the new year

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The table is set
And all glasses are full
The pieces go missing
May we still feel whole
We’ll build new traditions in place of the old
Cause life without revision will silence our souls
Let the bells keep on ringing
Making angels in the snow
And may the melody surround us
When the cracks begin to show
Like the petals in our pockets
May we remember who we are
Unconditionally cared for
By those who share our broken heartsAs gentle as feathers
The snow piles high
Our world gets rewritten and retraced every time
Like fresh plates and clean slates
Our future is white
New Years resolutions are reset tonight

-Sleeping at Last, listen here:  Snow

the day after

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Hollow.
The womb… empty.
What did his dear mother feel on the day after?

Let’s go back a few days I beg.
Start the month over.
Let’s again
anticipate the coming.
Let’s again
recount the carols.

—–

But my eyes see dried pine needles.
Deflated.
Popcorn kernels.
An ache.

“Remember” I hear someone whisper…
Remember the candles,
the continual lighting,
the light.

The star,
yes, the blazing burning star.
The hay.
The thirteen year old girl.

Flesh.
Emmanuel.
Alive.

—–

I sit.  I remember.
And I hold the great story.
I hold…

The broken perfume bottle.
The human tears he shed.
The torn curtain.
The missing boulder.

I feel…I touch it.
I take hold of it and breathe it in.
I welcome in the womb these pieces.
These ‘already’ and these ‘not yet’.

I try to welcome in the day after.
The weeks after.
Journeying with the wise men.
Sleepy lids fighting,
waiting for the brilliant dawn to finally come.

-MCS

on the mystery of the incarnation

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It’s when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form.
But to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.

-Denise Levertov

 

light of lights

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Light of lights!
All gloom dispelling
Thou didst come to make thy dwelling
Here within our world of sight.
Lord, in pity and in power,
Thou didst in our darkest hour
Rend the clouds and show thy light.

Praise to thee in earth and heaven
Now and ever more be given
Christ, who art our sun and shield.
Lord, for us thy life thou gavest,
Those who trust in thee thou savest,
All thy mercy stands revealed.

-St. Thomas Aquinas

 

giver of hope

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Glorious God,

You are the giver of hope:
when we are in need of rescue, you are our deliverer,
when we are in deep pain, you are our comforter,
when we are in despair, you are our delight.

Hope is not lost, for in the most desperate of times,
you came in the flesh to bring us salvation.

When all seemed lost, you were born to gain the world.
When the world was covered in darkness, you became a great light,
and you shine so bright that no evil can overcome your glory.

Praise be to God.

Amen

-Thom Turner at Everyday Liturgy