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Monday's Mourning Ministry
In the Bleak Midwinter
~poem by Christina Rossetti
~song performed by Gloucester Cathedral Choir
In the Bleak Midwinter
~Gloucester Cathedral Choir
In the bleak mid-winter,
frosty wind made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow:
snow on snow on snow
in the bleak mid-winter,
long, long ago.
Our God, heav'n cannot hold Him
nor earth sustain
Heav'n and earth shall flee away
when He comes to reign.
In the bleak mid-winter,
a stable-place sufficed
the Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.
Angels and arch angels
may have gathered there
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air
But only his mother
in her maiden bliss
worshipped the Beloved
with a kiss.
What can I give him
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man,
I would do my part.
Yet what I can, I give him
give my heart.
from The Telegraph
12/26/2010
"The Small, warm heart in a bleak, wintry world:
Why does the Christmas story still hold such appeal"
(The Telegraph prints the following from Telegraph View 12/23/10 from which we have taken an excerpt)
As the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote this month, the Christmas story appeals to people of all cultures and beliefs partly because it "outrageously suggests that putting our hand into the clutch of a baby may be the most important thing we can ever do".
Christians believe more: that this presence of defenceless love is "the ultimate power in the universe".
The Elizabethan poet Robert Southwell expressed it in a series of paradoxes:
"The Word is dumb, the Mirth of Heaven doth weep,
Might feeble is, and Force doth faintly creep."
~Robert Southwell
*****
In the Bleak Midwinter
(*The full poem)
In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone:
Snow had fallen, snow on snow
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter,
Long ago.
Our God, heaven cannot hold him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When he comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.
Enough for him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk,
And a mangerful of hay:
Enough for him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.
Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air -
But only his mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the beloved
With a kiss.
What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man
I would do my part;
Yet what I can, I give him -
Give my heart.
~Christina Rossetti, 1872
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRobryliBLQ
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