Moonless darkness stands between

Moonless darkness stands between. 

Past, the 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.

---Gerard Manley Hopkins

Daughter Zion*

Daughter Zion, O rejoice;

Shout aloud with cheer, O Jerusalem.

See, your King now comes**, riding unto you***,

Royal Prince of Peace, He comes in God's own time.

Daughter Zion, O rejoice;

Shout aloud with cheer, O Jerusalem.

Hosanna, David's Son;

Blessed be Your people, O blessed One!

Your eternal Kingdom establish, LORD!

Hosanna, "Save us!", Eternal Word.

Hosanna, David's Son;

Blessed be Your people, O blessed One! 

 Hosanna, David's Son;

Be with joy now greeted, O King most mild! 

Forever stands in peace Your royal Throne: 

You, Eternal Father's Eternal Child. 

Hosanna, David's Son;

Be with joy now greeted, O King most mild! 

---German Adventslied; translated C. Marie Byars (c) 2004 

*A German folk carol for Advent, set to music from G.F. Handel's Judas Maccabeus **The first Sunday in Advent traditionally has a reading from Palm Sunday, which this song reflects. The "hope" that people had all those centuries before Christ came was to be fulfilled soon after Christ's entry into Jerusalem; He suffered, died on the cross and rose from the dead in that next week. ***The fact that Jesus was able to ride the "unbroken colt" of a donkey which had never been ridden before shows that He IS the Lord of Nature.

O, Blessed Spring*

O, Blessed Spring where Word and Sign 

Embrace us into Christ the Vine: 

Here Christ enjoins each one to be 

A branch of this life-giving Tree. 

Through summer heat of youthful tears,

Uncertain faith, rebellious tears, 

Sustained by Christ's infusing rain, 

The boughs will shout for joy again. 

When autumn cools and youth is cold, 

When limbs their heavy harvest hold, 

Then through us, warm, the Christ will move 

With gifts of beauty, wisdom love. 

As winter comes, as winters must, 

We breathe our last, return to dust; 

Still held in Christ, our souls take wing

And trust the promise of the spring. 

Christ, Holy Vine, Christ, Living Tree, 

Be praised for this blest mystery: 

That Word and water thus revive 

And join us to Your Tree of Life. 

---Susan Palo Cherwien; (c) 1993 

*(A hymn to be sung to the old English folk song, "The Water is Wide [I can't get o'er]"

Pied Beauty (Redux)

Always nice to repeat some of Hopkins work:

Glory be to God for dappled things,For skies of couple-color as a brindled cow,
For rose-moles in stipple** upon trout that swim.Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls***, finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced---fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.All things counter, spare, original, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?)With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:Praise Him.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877

*Pied: Having patches of more than one color; i.e. the "Pied Piper"
**Rose-colored dots or flecks
***Fallen chestnuts, red as burning coals

 

Beside Still Waters

The LORD [Yahweh] is my shepherd; 

I shall not [be in] want. 

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 

He leadeth me beside the still waters.** 

He restoreth my soul: 

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; 

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. 

----King David; Psalm 23 KJV* 

*I normally don't read the King James Version anymore, but the etched-in beauty of this older version captivated me. 

**Recently revisiting this Psalm (which, actually, is not my "favorite" of the Psalms, unlike many other people), I emphasized the "still waters" and "restoring my soul" because of some great, deep, long-sought but elusive peace which He recently brought to me & which I pray continues through the next leg of life's journey.

Fringed Gentian

God made a little gentian; 

It tried to be a rose 

And failed, and all the summer laughed. 

But just before the snows 

There came a purple creature 

That ravished all the hill; 

And summer hid her forehead, 

And mockery was still. 

The frosts were her condition; 

The Tyrian* would not come 

Until the North evoked it. 

"Creator! shall I bloom?"

---Emily Dickinson

*Tyrian: A shade of purple, named for the dye made in the ancient city of Tyre.

To Everything a Season

There is a time for everything,
And a season for every activity under heaven:

• A time to be born and a time to die;
• A time to plant and a time to uproot;
• A time to kill off forcefully and a time to heal;
• A time to tear down and a time to build;
• A time to weep and a time to laugh;
• A time to grieve and a time to dance;
• A time to scatter stones about and a time to gather them up;
• A time to embrace and a time to hold back;
• A time to search and a time to abandon search;
• A time to keep and a time to discard;
• A time to tear and a time to mend;
• A time to be silent and a time to speak
• A time to love and a time to hate*;
• A time for war and a time for peace....

[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity into the hearts of people,
Yet they cannot grasp what God has done
From beginning to end. --(King Solomon?); Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11
*We are called to truly hate what is evil or false; not to arbitrarily hate other people.