Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
"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 evermore 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
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock-crow
Jesus Christ was born
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger
In the world His hand 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."--Christina Rossetti
"The Word disguised Himself by appearing in a body, that He might, as Man, transfer men to Himself, and center their senses on Himself."--Athanasius
"I sing the birth was born to-night,
The author both of life and light;
The angels so did sound it.
And like the ravished shepherds said,
Who saw the light, and were afraid,
Yet searched, and true they found it.
The Son of God, th' eternal king,
That did us all salvation bring,
And freed the soul from danger;
He whom the whole world could not take,
The Word which heaven and earth did make,
Was now laid in a manger.
The Father's wisdom willed it so,
The Son's obedience knew no 'No,'
Both wills were in one stature;
And as that wisdom had decreed,
The Word was no made flesh indeed,
and took on him our nature.
What comfort by him do we win,
Who made himself the price of sin,
To make us heirs of glory!
To see this babe all innocence;
A martyr born in our defence:
Can man forget the story?"--Ben Johnson
"Moonless darkness
stands between,
Past, O Past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem star may lead me
To the sight of Him who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me pure, Lord:
Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord:
Thou wert lowly;
Now beginning, and alway:
Now begin, on Christmas Day."--Gerald Manley Hopkins
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