Advent Calendar 24 December 2009 - Christmas Eve

A Christmas Eve Service of Light and Carols can be found at last years entry titled: December 24th’s: Christmas Eve.

God of hope, we rejoice in your presence and live in hope because you are with us. We thank you because you gave Mary the courage to accept the mystery of her vision. Often we do not understand – how can we understand the mystery of Jesus, the Messiah? Give us courage to live in the light of hope. Let us share the joy of the mystery of God with us. Amen.

~ Thomas McNair, Taiwan

The Mother of God

The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare

Through the hollow of an ear;

Wings beating about the room;

The terror of all terrors that I bore

The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows

Every common woman knows,

Chimney corner, garden walk,

Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes

And gather all the talk?

What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,

This fallen star my milk sustains,

This love that makes my heart's blood stop

Or strikes a Sudden chill into my bones

And bids my hair stand up?

~ W.B. Yeats