O Little Town of Bethlehem

O little town of Bethlehem How still we see thee lie: 

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep 

The silent stars go by; 

Yet in thy dark streets shineth 

The Everlasting Light; 

The hopes and fears of all the years 

Are met in thee tonight. 

For Christ is born of Mary, 

And gathered all above, 

While mortals sleep, the angels keep 

Their watch of wondering love. 

O morning stars, together 

 Proclaim the holy birth! 

And praises sing to God the King, 

 And peace to men on earth. 

How silently, how silently 

The wondrous gift is giv'n; 

So God imparts to human hearts 

The blessing of His heaven; 

No ear may hear His coming, 

But in this world of sin, 

Where meek souls will receive Him still 

The dear Christ enters in. 

Where children pure and happy 

Pray to the blessed Child: 

Where Misery cries out to Thee, 

Son of the undefiled; 

Where Charity stands watching, 

And Faith holds wide the door, 

The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, 

And Christmas comes once more. 

O Holy Child of Bethlehem! 

 Descend to us, we pray, 

Cast out our sin, and enter in, 

Be born in us today; 

We hear the Christmas angels 

The great glad tidings tell; 

O come to us, abide with us,  

Our Lord Emmanuel*!

  --Father Phillip Brooks, Episcopal priest, 1868

*Emmanuel (or Immanuel) is Hebrew for "God with us" 

Father Brooks was inspired to write this hymn by a trip to the Holy Land. 

The tune this is most often sung to in the United States, "St. Louis", was penned rather hastily at the author's request by his organist, Lewis Redner.  The tune "Forest Green" used in the UK and the Commonwealth is an adaptation of a folk tune.  Ralph Vaughn Williams made the adaptation and set this hymn to that tune in 1906.

Hymnary.org O Little Town of Bethlehem

Philadelphia Encyclopedia "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

Hymnology Archive "O Little Town of Bethlehem

And Death Shall Have No Dominion*

[to commemorate All Saints Day, November 1st] 

And death shall have no dominion.* 

Dead men naked they shall be one 

With the man in the wind and the west moon; 

When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, 

They shall have stars at elbow and foot; 

Though they go mad they shall be sane, 

Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; 

Though lovers be lost love shall not; 

And death shall have no dominion. 

And death shall have no dominion. 

Under the windings of the sea 

They lying long shall not die windily; 

Twisting on racks when sinews give way, 

Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; 

Faith in their hands shall snap in two, 

And the unicorn evils run them through; 

Split all ends up they shan't crack; 

And death shall have no dominion. 

And death shall have no dominion. 

No more may gulls cry at their ears 

Or waves break loud on the seashore; 

Where blew a flower may a flower no more 

Lift its head to the blows of the rain; 

Through they be mad and dead as nails, 

Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; 

Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, 

And death shall have no dominion.* 

--Dylan Thomas, 1933 [Welsh; now in public domain] 

 *Romans 6:9-- "Since Christ has been raised from the dead, the dead die no more; death has no dominion over him.

"Supermoon" Rising Over a Cemetery in Missouri

Fum Fum Fum

 

On December 25th** sing

Fum, fum, fum*.

On December 25th sing

Fum, fum, fum.

He is born of God's pure love,       

The Son of God, the Son of God;

He is born of Virgin Mary

On this night so cold** and dreary.

Fum, fum, fum.

     

Birds of every forest grove sing

Fum, fum, fum. 

Birds of every forest grove sing

Fum, fum, fum. 

All your fledglings on the bough,

Oh, leave them now, oh, leave them now;

For to make a downy cover

For our Jesus, round Him hover.

Fum, fum, fum.  

Shining stars from heav'n above, sing

Fum, fum, fum. 

Shining stars from heav'n above, sing

Fum, fum, fum. 

Oh, come rejoice, oh, come rejoice;

Come and light the night's obscureness

With your light and dazzling pureness.

Fum, fum, fum.    

--Traditional Spanish Catalan carol (one of many translations)  

*"Fum" [pronounced "foom"], an imitation of strumming guitars and other stringed instruments; possibly also suggesting the rocking of the cradle.

**We don't know what date or time of year Jesus was born.  (Some modern writers assert it was in August, due to supposed clues in the text, but this is not known for sure.)  This date was chosen to give people who converted to Christianity an opportunity to carry on old light festivals with new meanings.  Many carols reflect their European settings far more than the realities of 1st century Bethlehem.

Fum Fum Fum: Cedarmont Kids Version

Stars of the Morning

--St. Michael's & All Angels Day will be celebrated September 29th

Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright, 
Filled with celestial splendor and light, 

These that, where night never followeth day, 

Raise the Thrice Holy* song ever alway. 

These are Thy servants, these are Thine own, 

God of the Armies, the nearest Thy throne; 

These are Thy messengers, these dost Thou send, 

Help of the helpless ones, us to defend. 

"Who like the Lord?" thunders Michael the chief; 

God sends us others to protect us from grief; 

Through Mary at Nazareth, God promised peace, 

As Gabriel, the light of God, announced the release. 

Then, when the earth was first poised in mid space, 

Then, when the planets first sped on their race, 

Then, when were ended the six days’ employ, 

Then all the sons of God shouted for joy. 

Fidelis Schabet, public domain

Still let them guard us; still let them fight,

Lord of angelic hosts, battling for right; 

Till, where their anthems they ceaselessly pour, 

We with the angels may bow and adore. 

 --Joseph the Hymnographer (Φωστηρες της ουσιας, 810[?]-886[?]); translated by John M. Neale, 1862; adapted by c.m.b., 2024  

*Song to the Trinity: Father, Son & Holy Spirit

Joseph the Hymnographer

John Mason Neale

 

Songs of Thankfulness & Praise

 

Happy New Year!  This is being posted in recognition of the upcoming Festival of Epiphany, the coming of the Wise Men, on January 6th.  Epiphany is a full season, and this hymn has many verses to reflect this.  I am only posting some more pertinent to the Wise Men and to things in nature.

Songs of thankfulness and praise,

Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise:

Manifested by the star

To the sages from afar.

Branch of royal David's stem  

In Thy birth at Bethlehem:

Anthems be to Thee addressed, 

God in man made manifest.

Sun and moon shall darkened be,

Stars shall fall, the heav'ns shall flee;

Christ will then like lightning shine:

All will see His glorious sign.

All will then the trumpet hear,

All will see the Judge appear;

Thou by all wilt be confessed, 

God in man made manifest.

Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord,

Present in They holy Word--

Grace to imitate Thee now

And be pure, as pure art Thou,

That we might become like Thee

At Thy great epiphany

And may praise Thee, ever blest,

God in man made manifest.

--Christopher Wordsworth, 1862

Looking Backwards & Forwards at Hopkins

 

For this new year, I'm reviewing for you all the Gerard Manley Hopkins entries on this blog.  There are works by Hopkins himself, plus references to his work.  Hopkins was a 19th century English Jesuit poet.  He both modernized and stuck with old forms in his work. Enjoy, and Happy 2021!

"Pied Beauty" [Best known; 2nd posting]

"Pied Beauty" [1st posting]

"God's Grandeur" [2nd best known]

"Spring & Fall"

"Peace"

"Spring"

"My Own Heart Let Me Have More Pity On"

"Moonrise"

"Patience"

"Easter"

"The Starlight Night"

"Music on the Wing"

Excerpt from "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection."

"Moonless Darkness Stands Between" [Christmas]

"He Hath Abolished the Old Drouth"

"May Magnificat"

Here is Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, reading "God's Grandeur":

Reading of "God's Grandeur"

Here's an original poem of mine, drawing from a line in God's Grandeur":

"Nature is Never Spent"

This is by a poetess who really admired Hopkins:

"A Song of Spring"

Chokecherries, White Mountains of Arizona
October 2021

The Bright Morning Star

 This month, I'm making a departure to post something by David C. Brown, a "blog acquaintance" from the U.K.  He first posted it in July, 2016.  The link to his blog is below.

Thou art the Star of the morning;
Thou art the Bright Morning Star;*
Saints, in the midst of man's scorning
Welcome Thy light from afar:

Star of the morning,
O what a source of delight!
Soon Thou wilt have Thine assembly
Shining with heavenly light.  

Thou art the Star of the morning;
Thou art the Bright Morning Star;
Shining with heaven's adorning
Into the night where we are.
 
Star of the morning,
O what a source of delight!
Soon Thou wilt have Thine assembly
Shining with heavenly light. --David C. Brown, 2016

Sing it to  the hymn "Showers of Blessing"

*Christ as the Morning Star from the Book of Revelation.  (For more on this matter, see my posting, "Little Star, Might Star" from last month.)

The Bright Morning Star-- Grace Notes Blog

The "Christmas Star" --Then & Now

     In December 2020, there has been much talk of a “Christmas Star.”  It is actually a close planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn.  The closest pass happened last night, December 21st, the Winter Solstice.  I have added pictures below.

     In early evenings of June 2015, there was a fairly close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter (the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the moon.)  They didn’t get as close as this conjunction.
    What might that original “Christmas star” have been?  Paul Meier is a Christian pastor and former history professor at Western Michigan University.  [First, an “aside.”  For trivia buffs, Western Michigan is the school that the real Tim Allen and his fictional counterpart, Tim Taylor (on Home Improvement) attended.]  Meier's thoughts are the basis for a lot of what is contained here.  
     The idea of a star twinkles throughout Hebrew history.   Numbers 24:17, written by Moses, was a bit of Hebrew poetry, spoken by a false prophet who was trying to “profit” off of cursing Israel.  (His name was Balaam.)  Instead of a curse, part of what Balaam said was:
   I see Him, but not now:
   I look upon Him, but not near;
   A star shall come out of Jacob [the ancestor of Israel];
   A scepter shall rise out of Israel…”
     As Jews over the centuries hoped for their Messiah, their Anointed One [which is what “Christ” means], many expected a star to accompany Him.  The six-pointed Star of David [King David] has symbolized the People of Israel from Old Testament times to today’s Israeli flag. The five-pointed Star of Solomon, David’s son, and David’s six-pointed star, show up in stone at archaeology sites.
     Scientists and Bible scholars have offered explanations for the “Star of Bethlehem.” The “Star” could have been a miracle sign, a miracle star, a supernova, a comet, or a conjunction of planets.  If it was one or more observable astronomical events, ancient records can supply some insight.  Ancient Chinese astronomy records are the best. But the appearance of something miraculous cannot be tested—or discounted, for that matter.
     Magi was the technical term for the Wise Men, a term with shadings of “magicians.”  They probably came from Persia (modern-day Iran) to Bethlehem. Why would they do this? One possibility is God used the Magis’ fascination with astrology to draw them to Judea. In ancient astrology, the giant planet Jupiter was considered the “King’s Planet,” for it represented to the Romans the highest god and ruler of the universe: Marduk to the Babylonians and Zeus to the Greeks.  In Hebrew Jupiter is called "Sedeq", meaning "righteousness", a term also used for the Messiah. 
     The ringed planet Saturn was seen as the shield or defender of Palestine, while the constellation of Pisces, which was also associated with Syria and Palestine, represented major events and crises.  Jupiter encountering Saturn in the sign of the Fishes would have meant that a divine and cosmic ruler was to appear in Palestine at a major point of history.
     Jupiter and Saturn traveled very close to each other in the night sky, and in May, September, and December of 7 BC, they appeared almost joined.  Mars joined the configuration in February of 6 B.C.  In 6 BC, Jupiter was occasionally blocked out ("eclipsed") by the Moon in the constellation Aries. Jupiter’s status as a kingly star was amplified when Jupiter was in close conjunctions with the Moon. The second blocking out on April 17 coincided precisely when Jupiter was 'in the east.'  This situation could be the condition mentioned twice in the biblical account about the Star of Bethlehem.

     Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 4 B.C., with B.C. numbers running opposite our AD numbers. This confusion arose because the man who developed this timeline miscalculated on the date of the founding of Rome.  We know that Jesus had to have been born this early (i.e. before AD 1) because King Herod the Great died in March or April of 4 B.C.  Jesus could have been born as much as two years before, though, because rotten Herod, according to the Bible, ordered all the baby boys in Bethlehem under the age of two to be killed.  Herod had found out about the matter of another King being born from the Magi and wanted Him killed.
     In 1871, English astronomer John Williams [not to be confused with the modern music composer and conductor! 😉] published a list of comets taken from Chinese records.  Comet No. 52 on the Williams list appeared for some seventy days in March-April of 5 B.C. near the constellation Capricorn and would have been visible in both the Far and Near East. As each night wore on, the comet would seem to have moved westward across the southern sky.  [Did you track the movements of the comet from spring 2020?  Did any of you see the much brighter Hale-Bopp Comet in the late 1990s?]
     The time is also very appropriate. This could indeed have been the Magi's marker. Comet No. 53 on the Williams list was a "tailless comet", which could have been a nova, an exploding star. No. 53 appeared in March-April of 4 B.C. — a year after the comet with the tail.  It was visible all over the Far and Middle East.  
     Dr. Meier thinks it happened this way:  The conjunctions from 7-6 B.C. alerted the Wisemen to look for important developments in Palestine.  Maybe some Jews living near them alerted them to Old Testament interpretations.  [Not noted by Meier, but also possible: one or more studied the Old Testament, as well as other people's writings; or maybe one or more of the Magi was Jewish.]

  The comet of 5 B.C. reinforced this idea that an important new King was arriving in Palestine. This set them on their way.  The supernova of 4 BC appeared after they had stopped in Jerusalem and spoken to suspicious King Herod.  Dr. Meier believes that Jesus might have been born in the winter of 5-4 B.C.  He has been to the Holy Land many times and has asserted that shepherds do, indeed, stay out "watching their flocks by night", even in Judean winters.
     On the other hand, maybe the planetary conjunctions came closer to Jesus' actual birth in 6 B.C., and the Wise Men simply got there later.  The story in Matthew speaks of the Holy Family being in a house and refers to Jesus as a Child, not a Baby.  Maybe the family had planned to stay on in Bethlehem, to get away from Nazareth gossip about the couple getting married earlier than planned and Mary being pregnant before a full year of betrothal had passed.  In that culture, betrothal was to last a full year, and the couple was expected to defer sexual activity until after the wedding. 
     On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer in Earth’s night sky than they have since 1226 A.D.  They were not fully joined, though.  Jupiter and Saturn sat just 0.1 degrees apart, or a mere one-fifth the width of the Moon, as the Moon appears to us.  They did look quite near, though, to the naked eye.
     December 21^st was also the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.  This was the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.  The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun at this time.  This has nothing to do with how close or far we are from the Sun.  In fact, we’re slightly closer to the Sun in January than at any other time of the year!  

Telescope image

Simple camera image

The Word

[repost]

THE WORD "became Flesh and so-journed among us..."

(John 1:14)

THE WORD was spoken at Creation, 

 And all things came into being.
In the beginning,
All Nature resounded with THE joyous WORD.

THE WORD was recorded by the prophets,
God's Holy Men of old.

"In the beginning was THE WORD,
And THE WORD was with GOD,
and THE WORD was God.
This One was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1-2)

THE WORD was spoken to the Virgin Mary,

And she received THE WORD by the Spirit's power.
She conceived and bore a Son,
For in the fullness of time, 

God sent forth His Son to be born of a woman.

(Galatians 4:4)

She wrapped Him in Infant's clothes
And laid Him in a feed trough,
For there was no place else for Him.

Shepherds heard THE WORD from Angels,

So they themselves came to examine THE WORD for themselves.

They gave thanks for THE WORD

     and spoke THE WORD to others.

Wise men came to view THE WORD,
Led by their star's bright light.
THE WORD gives men wisdom,
For THE WORD is, itself, WISDOM. (Proverbs 8)
The Wise Men gave THE WORD gifts,
But THE WORD gave them greater gifts.
Though they left Bethlehem,
THE WORD never left them.

THE WORD has been handed down now
Through countless number of ages.
But THE WORD still stays among us,
Speaking as plainly to people as ever.
So, we, too, have seen His glory,
The glory of the One-and-Only-Begotten from the Father,
Full of grace and truth. . .
"Your WORD is TRUTH." (John 17:17)

THE WORD still illumines the walk of the saints,
As it has from time immemorial. . .
"Your WORD is a Lamp unto my feet
And a Light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105)
THE WORD brightens and cheers the walk
And leads us to Himself.

---C. Marie Byars, 1989
St. Louis, Graduate School
(original Bible Translations)