December 10, 2023: Perspective Blog

December 10, 2023

    The Christmas season seems to long for truth to be born in poetic words and images. As turmoil and suffering rage around the world, we need these joys! 

      Here is a lovely example from Christina G. Rossetti:

                   Before the Paling of the Stars

Before the paling of the stars,

Before the winter morn,

Before the earliest cockcrow,

Jesus Christ was born:

Born in a stable, 

Cradled in a manger,

In the world His hands had made

Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep

In Jerusalem,

Young and old lay fast asleep

In crowded Bethlehem;

Saint and Angel, ox and ass,

Kept a watch together

Before the Christmas daybreak

In the winter weather.

Jesus on His mother’s breast

In the stable cold,

Spotless Lamb of God was He,

Shepherd of the fold:

Let us kneel with Mary maid,

With Joseph bent and hoary,

With Saint and Angel, ox and ass,

To hail the King of Glory.