Song for the New Year (Excerpt)

Old time has turned another page

of eternity and truth;

He reads with a warning voice to age,

And whispers a lesson to youth.

A year has fled o'er heart and head

Since last the yule log burnt;

And we have a task to closely ask,

What the bosom and brain have learnt?

Oh! let us hope that our sands have run

With wisdom's precious grains;

Oh! May we find that our hands have done

Some work of glorious pains.

Then a welcome and cheer to a merry new year,

While the holly gleams above us;

With a pardon for the foes who hate,

And a prayer for those who love us.

We may have seen some loved ones pass

To the land of hallow'd rest;

We may miss the glow of an honest brow

And the warmth of a friendly breast;

But if we nursed them while on earth,

With hearts all true and kind,

Will their spirits blame the sinless mirth

Of those true hearts left behind?

No, no! It were not well or wise

To mourn with endless pain;

There's a better world beyond the skies,

Where the good shall meet again.

Then a welcome and cheer to the merry new year,

While the holly gleams above us;

With a pardon for the foes who hate,

and a prayer for those who love us.

Eliza Cook, public domain, published in Poem-a-Day, December 29, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets

When the Song of the Angels Is Stilled

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace between brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman

The Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
      where there is hatred, let me sow love,
      where there is injury, pardon,
      where there is doubt, faith,
      where there is despair, hope,
      where there is darkness, light,
      where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master:
      grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
      to be understood as to understand,
      to be loved as to love,
      for it is in giving that we receive,
      it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
      it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Francis of Assisi, Italy, 13th century
   

Christmas Blessing

May the coming of Christ
deepen your wonder
and widen your gratitude.

May the helpless child
bring forth your tenderness
and strengthen your love.

May the gentle mother
give you courage to embrace the holy
and find the divine within yourself.

May the child who shares our death
bring light into your darkness
and hope to your weariness.

May the holy family in the stable
open your heart to the poor,
the homeless, the refugee.

May the child sought by soldiers
embolden you to cry out
and empower you to resist injustice.

May the angels who sing above you
awaken your heart
and surround you with beauty.

May the One Who Comes
remind you of your belovedness
and fill you with kindness and mercy
and give you joy.

Steve Garness-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net. December 23, 2019

What Do I Want for Christmas

What do I want for Christmas?
I want to kneel in Bethlehem,
    the air thick with alleluias,
        the angels singing
            that God is born among us.
In the light of the Star,
    I want to see them come,
        the wise ones and the humble.
I want to see them come
    bearing whatever they treasure
        to lay at the feet
            of him who gives his life.

What do I want for Christmas?
To see in that stable
    the whole world kneeling in thanks
        for a promise kept:
            new life.
For in his nativity
    we find ours.

Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem (The Westminister Press, 1987)

Are you ready for Christmas?

What does "ready" mean?

Boxes with bows, shining paper neatly trimmed
and taped, a heap of planning.

I always worry nothing I give
is enough. Wishing to share a mood,

breeze, hope, a better idea . . . I want the kids
in Gaza to have electricity all day long

and the kids in Bethelem to feel peace with
their neighbors and no walls blocking movements,

no kids sad about houses crushed or
parents disappeared. I want no trees uprooted.

O little town of Bethlehem, might the year end
on a high note of joy?

Could people in hospitals
come bounding forth, suddenly well,

and no one feel abandoned? Everyone surprised
by love. A man said,

Whatever you are planning to give,
give twice as much.

That's what I want.
Then I will be ready.

Naomi Shihab Nye, "Christmas Is Coming!: Celebrate the Holiday with Art, Stories, Poems. Songs, and Recipes" (Harry N. Abrams, 2019)

Prayer of Peace

God, when I close my eyes to this world

may your presence nudge me awake.

When I am weary and ready to quit,

your passion for this world energize me.

When I am hopeless, your gaze raise me up.

When I am afraid, your love enfold me.

When I am angry and want to blame,

your kindness sweep me off my feet.

When I am bitter and ready to fight,

your forgiveness quiet me.

When I find myself in a land of sorrow,

your presence accompany me.

When I am broken and I despair,

your delight make me whole.

God of grace, as you send me into this world

may your hope live in me, your love, your joy.

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net

Like Our Sister Mary, A Christmas Affirmation

Like our sister Mary, we say yes

Yes to your favor
Your blessing
Your presence

Yes that we are enough just as we are
Where we are

Yes to your calling
and the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon us to fulfill it

Yes to bearing and birthing
Your Word and Your promises and your Kingdom
in this time and place

Yes to all things being possible with you

Like our sister Mary we say
Here I am, the Lord's humble servant
As you have said, let it be done to me
in me
through me

Like our sister Mary we sing and celebrate you
Our God, Our Liberator
For though we are your humble servants
You have noticed us

Lisa Degrenia, Revlisad.com, December, 24, 2017

Caretake This Moment

Caretake this moment.

Immerse yourself in its particulars.

Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.

Quit the evasions.

Stop giving yourself needless trouble.

It is time to really live: to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.

You are not some disinterested bystander.

Exert yourself.

Respect your partnership with providence.

Ask yourself often: how can I perform this particular deed

such that it would be consistent with and acceptable to the divine will?

Heed the answer and get to work.

When your doors are shut and your room is dark you are not alone.

The will of nature is within you as your natural genius is within.

Listen to its importunings. 

Follow its directives.

As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life.

No great thing is created suddenly.

There must be time.

Give your best and always be kind.

Epictetus, Epictetus: The Art of Living, The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, trans. Sharon Lebell (HarperOne, 2007)

  

Favor

My soul magnifies the Holy One,
for God, you have looked with favor
on the lowliness of your servant.
                                       Luke 1:46

What if there was nothing special about Mary at all?
What if she was not particularly pious or virtuous,
but simply willing to hear the Word:
"You have found favor with God."

What if all that's needed to ignite a miracle
is the willingness to accept God's favor?
What if to bring salvation to the world all God needs of us
is to receive God's delight in us?
To imagine God's saving grace growing within us.
To trust God's tender regard for us
despite our lowliness, despite our undeserving;
despite all the hardships and struggles,
even the sin and despair, to trust God's joy?
Not that we are better, only that we are beloved.
What if all God asks of us is
to say Yes to God's Yes?
To hear God's hope for us
and to reply with all our hearts,
"Let it be to me according to your word."

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net, December 12, 2019

Wolf and Lamb

      The wolf shall live with the lamb . . .
      and a little child shall lead them.
                                        Isaiah 11:6

God, there are wolves and lambs in me,
kind spirits and angry ones.
Make gentle my bitter wolves,
and defend the lambs of mercy.
Heal the wounds that feed my rage,
and give courage to my love.
Grant that the wolf renounces its appetites,
the lamb surmounts its fears.

May the Christ Child lead wolf and lamb together,
that I may be whole, and all of me be welcomed.
May I find joy in what is strong and gentle
and in the power of tenderness,
and gratitude for creatures who all need each other.

Christ Child, lead me to a place of peace.

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net, December 4, 2019

My mother said

        My mother said, "Of course,
it may be nothing, but your father
        has a spot on his lung."
That was all she said. My father
        at fifty-one could never
speak of dreadful things without tears.
        When I started home,
I kissed his cheek, which was not our habit.
        In a letter, my mother
asked me not to kiss him again
        because it made him sad.
In two weeks, the exploratory
        revealed an inoperable
lesion.
            The doctors never
        told him, he never asked,
but read The Home Medical Guidebook.
        Seven months later,
just after his fifty-second birthday
        -- his eyesight going,
his voice reduced to a whisper, three days
        before he died -- he said,
"If anything should happen to me . . ."

Donald Hall, found in Good Poems, Garrison Keillor, ed (Viking, 2002)

December

A little girl is singing for the faithful to come ye
Joyful and triumphant, a song she loves,
And also the partridge in a pear tree
And the golden rings and the turtle doves.
In the dark streets, red lights and green and blue
Where the faithful live, some joyful, some troubled,
Enduring the food and also the flu,
Taking the garbage out and keeping the sidewalks shoveled.
Not much triumph going on here -- and yet
There is much we do not understand.
And my hopes and fears are met
In this small singer holding my hand.
        Onward we go, faithfully, into the dark
        And are there angels singing overhead? Hark.

Gary Johnson, published online by The Writer's Almanac (December 22, 2011)

Blessed Are the Merciful

Amish schoolhouse shooting, Nickle Mines, PA

I didn't trust their forgiveness.

Before the blood cooled on the schoolhouse floor
they held the killer's widow in their arms,

raised money for his children,
lined his grave site with a row of patient horses.

Somewhere in town there had to be a father
splitting a trunk and imagining the crush

of the murderer's skull. There had to be a mother
hurling a Bible at the wall that received her prayers.

Or is it just the flash and noise of my own life
that primes me for anger? Does scrolling

through playlists in traffic fill the spaces
in my mind reserved for grace?

Forgiveness requires imagination.
Eye for an eye is efficient.

For the man brought chains.
He brought wires, eyehooks, and boards.

He brought a bag of candles and lubricant
and secured little girls with plastic ties.

Two sisters begged to be shot first
to spare the others.

He shot them first. Then the rest.
One child with twenty-four bullets.

Perhaps they know something that I don't,
something to do with the morning rising

over an open field. The fathers receive
the meadowlark, the swallowtail,

the good corn rising into the fog.
The mothers ride their carriages into town,

accepting the rumbles of the stony road,
tripping into the rough hands of God.

Tania Runyan, Simple Weight (FutureCycle Press, 2010)

Advent Credo (Excerpts)

It is not true that creation and the human
family are doomed to destruction and loss --
This is true: For God so loved the world that
He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish but have
everlasting life;

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity
and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death
and destruction --
This is true: I have come that they may have
life, and that abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred should
have the last word, and that war and
destruction rule forever --
This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a
Son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, his name shall be called
wonderful councilor, mighty God, the
Everlasting, the Prince of Peace.

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope
against hope. Let us see visions of love and
peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility,
with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ
-- the life of the world.

Alan Boesak, Walking on Thorns (Eerdmans, 2004)

In Search of Our Kneeling Places

In each heart lies a Bethlehem,
      an inn where we must ultimately answer
          whether there is room or not.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
      we experience our own advent in his.
When we are Bethlehem-bound we can no longer look the other way
          conveniently not seeing stars
              not hearing angel voices.
We can no longer excuse ourselves by busily
      tending our sheep or our kingdoms.
   
This Advent let's go to Bethlehem
      and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us,
In the midst of shopping sprees
      let's ponder in our hearts the Gift of Gifts.
Through the tinsel
      let's look for the gold of the Christmas Star.
In the excitement and confusion, in the merry chaos,
      let's listen for the brush of angels' wings.
This Advent, let's go to Bethlehem
      and find our kneeling places.

Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem, (The Westminster Press, 1987)    
           

I Will Not Die an Unlived Life

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not die in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible;
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life: Reclaiming Passion and Purpose (Conari Press, 2000)

Christ Comes

Christ comes, the promised peace of God,
His hands with healing filled,
In Him is brokenness made whole
And love from hate distilled.
And when He comes, for whom we long,
Then will all rage be stilled.

Christ comes, the promised hand of God,
To cast the veil aside
That shrouds the world in bitter grief,
Where none from death can hide.
And when He comes, for whom we long,
Then will all tears be dried.

Christ comes, the promise kept by God,
The faithful One, and true.
In him is ev'ry hope confirmed
And ev'ry fear subdued.
And when he comes, for whom we long,
Then all will be made new.

Sr. Genevieve Glen, O.S.B., witnessestohope.org, accessed November 30, 2019

Of Love

I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but no less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway people beautiful to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some -- now carry my revelation with you --
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world -- its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself -- I imagine
this is how it began.

Mary Oliver, Red Bird (Beacon Press, 2008)