The Name

When eight days were completed for his circumcision,
he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
Luke 2:21

The name first given by the angel
and all our hope's long-burning flame,
the word of God that is salvation,
O Jesus, come and speak our names.

Not for a moment's flare and fading
but for unending fire in God:
This was the purpose of our making;
this is the burning in our heart.

Call us, eternal Son begotten,
call through our struggles and our doubt.
Call us the names we have forgotten;
whisper the words or rise and shout.

Call us, and give us ears to listen,
not to the voices of our lies,
but to the promise of our mission
and to our heart's most honest cries.

Teach us to speak the names you've given,
to fill your heaven with the sound
of your creations, ever-living,
at home where all your love is found.

The Father's will in our creation,
the Spirit filling us with breath,
O, speak and let us be, Salvation,
through life and far beyond our death.

Madonna with the Christ Child Writing, Pinturicchio c. 1500 By Sailko – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31598892

The Hope We Could Not Dare

The hope we could not dare
comes on us unawares,
the endless years' relief,
to catch us like a thief.

A baby's cry at night,
a darkened sky made bright,
the winter's cold turned warm,
the silent midnight torn.

And all that we had known
on angels' wings has flown:
The proud set down, despised;
the humble lifted high.

Those long-unheard will shout;
the deaf hear them announce;
the blind point out the Lord
who rules without a sword.

For those who sit in gloom,
the rose once more has bloomed.
Now does the virgin dance
for joy that fills her hands.

Upended universe
where heaven dwells on earth,
yet upside-down, it sings
for him, the king of kings.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Angels Appearing before the Shepherds, 1910 – Smithsonian American Art Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22435183

Not a Palace

Not a palace, but a stable
where the floors are muck and grit,
we all come as we are able,
come to give the king our gifts.

All that could have been or would be,
open but to God alone,
he has lost to gain a body,
gave potential up for hope.

So my fear and my ambition
I will lay before him here.
Let the future be uncertain
while the infant God sheds tears.

All my anger, all my vengeance:
Lay them down in straw and dirt.
God's own wrath could be perfection,
but he laid it down in birth.

All my envy and my longing,
these as well I will lay down:
Deep desire itself is calling
with a newborn wailing sound.

And this fragile mortal limit,
breath and pulse in flesh and skin:
He has come to dwell within it.
O my stable, welcome him!

The Door of Humility leads into the Church of the Nativity (Basilica of the Nativitiy). By Ian and Wendy Sewell – http://www.ianandwendy.com/Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3092042

Simeon

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
“Lord, now let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you prepared in the sight of every people,
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.”
Luke 2:22-35

Let me go in peace, Lord; 
let your servant go.
You have done as you swore 
all those years ago:

First to Eve and Adam, 
covered in their shame,
then again to Abraham, 
that he'd hold his claim.

So to wand'ring Israel: 
pasture for his flock;
Moses in his exile: 
water from the rock.

David in his palace, 
on his throne secure;
Babylon in malice, 
weighed and wanting more.

So at last to me, Lord: 
Now my eyes have seen
light to show the whole world 
all that you have been.

I have seen salavation; 
now in peace I'll sleep.
God, who kept me waiting, 
all his vows will keep.

Simeon in the Temple, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1631 – http://www.mauritshuis.nl : Home : Info : Pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=157936

After Bethlehem

For the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

What will you say to the mothers?
What angels did you send to them?
You saved your own son, but no others,
that midnight in Bethlehem.

Oh, we may call them your martyrs,
the innocents slaughtered by men,
but how can we call you their Father,
who left them in Bethlehem?

This love that would let us destroy us
that freedom might not be hemmed in,
and yet, it's this love that would join us
a-weeping in Bethlehem.

It won't lift a finger to save us
from cruel and powerful men,
yet it will shift heaven to raise us
someday after Bethlehem.

But not 'til it, too, has been slaughtered
and battered and ravaged by sin,
forsaken by even the Father
long decades from Bethlehem.

Then lift up your voices, you mothers;
you fathers, cry out, and again,
for heaven looks down and it shudders
to see us in Bethlehem.

François-Joseph Navez, The massacre of the innocents, 1824 – anagoria, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19057789

Abba

As an infant babbles “Abba,”
or lets out a wordless cry,
so we wail for you, O Father:
Will your mercy pass us by?
You have seen us in our anguish
and you have not turned away,
but you sent your Word unlanguaged
who once uttered night and day.

Now he lies, as we lie, helpless
in the limits of our flesh,
and will one day lie there breathless
in the stillness of our death.
Where the silence is unbroken,
there the Word of life will go,
though he cannot be unspoken,
all our wordlessness he'll know.

So he wails across the midnight
with a newborn's feeble strength,
as each one of us begins life,
cry as old as birth itself.
He has joined us in our wailing;
let us join our cries to his
for the mercy neverfailing:
Father God, your mercy give!

Nativity of Christ, medieval illustration from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (12th century), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31441189

Mary’s Prayer

How beautiful are the feet
that one day will bring good news,
but for now they rest with me
where the weary oxen doze.

How beautiful are the hands
that will one day grasp the world,
tucked away in swaddling bands
with their perfect fingers curled.

But for now, O God my savior,
while the world in sorrow sleeps,
grant us slumber in the stable;
let us rest in midnight peace.

How beautiful is the mouth
that one day will judgment give,
but for now, all slack in drowse,
they breathe out milk-scented peace.

How beautiful are the arms
that one day will show God's might,
but for now in shadows dark
they can rest here in the night.

And one day, O God my savior,
he will cast the mighty down.
He will lift the poor to favor,
but for now, he is my own.

Nativity at Night, by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490 – National Gallery, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37018624

The Word That Struck Creation’s Spark

The word that struck creation's spark
is silent in the waiting dark:
Eternity bound in her womb,
knit into time, wrapped for the tomb.

So his earth in her waters grows
'til parted by her body's throes, 
and he for whom the dark was light
is pierced by one star shining bright.

And she, the good earth for the seed,
has magnified her God indeed:
Invisible but for her love,
he wails to see the stars above.

The constellations dance and dim
beyond the light announcing him,
and shepherds who have left their sheep
now watch unblinking Godhead sleep.

They sing, in words he gave them first,
sweet comfort for the baby's birth,
that child and mother, weary worn,
may slumber, slumber, 'til the morn.

By Albrecht Dürer – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60874091

Not Ready

You come when we're not ready
on ways we've not made straight:
We haven't cleared the temple
or opened wide the gate.
We have not stirred the embers,
and see! the hour is late.
O portals, lift your heads up:
The king of glory waits!

We were expecting heralds
and harbingers of war:
the armiesof our generals
advancing score on score.
Not this, so weak and tender,
so helpless on the straw.
Cry out the word, O sentries!
Grow higher, ancient doors!

For though we come but halfway
with feeble hands and knees
upon our crooked pathways,
you run our hopes to meet.
Both lower than the valleys
and higher than the peaks,
who were and are and shall be,
find us before we seek!

Cornelis Massijs – Arrival of the Holy Family in Bethlehem – WGA14256 – Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15497722

O Brightness of the Morning Star

I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star.”
Revelation 22:16

To the tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM:

O brightness of the morning star
and gleaming hope seen from afar,
arise; fulfill the ancient vow
for those who walk in darkness now.

O polestar of forgotten ways
and promise of undreamt-of days,
draw us forever close to you
through constellations strange and new.

O, guide our steps, our hearts transform
to see like you when light is gone,
for both the noonday and the night
alike lie open to your sight.

That when at last your day shall rise,
its brightness shall not hurt our eyes
once we have seen you in the dark.
O shining Christ, rise in our hearts!

So make our darkness bright as day,
our brightness as your shadow safe,
and be in light or shade our hope,
by night or noon our saving Lord. Amen.

Venus, pictured center-right, is always brighter than all other planets or stars at their maximal brightness, as seen from Earth. Jupiter is visible at the top of the image. By Brocken Inaglory – File:Venus with reflection.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5223759