Readings (Click the links to see the readings)

2 Samuel 7.1-11 | Psalm 89.19-29 | Luke 1.67-69 |

Darkness
Micha Boyett

We are all some mother's child,
all born through great pain,

then a flood of release, an unbearable empty.
I sang a broken song, a wail of psalm

until you came. We were cold, alone,
this man who will raise you, and I.

No mother, no midwife, one blanket,
a borrowed pot of water on the fire.

Did I not expect you would cry with me,
you who had willed that all infants cry?

Did I not expect you would need me,
your body suddenly cold, craving my skin?

You bobbed your head along my chest
in search of milk: ordinary, human.

Where were the trumpets, where the showering
of gold? We three were hushed in the dark,

my blood trickling to the ground, my husband's silent tears,
your infant body learning to swallow.

And in this, somehow, Glory.
My God, you deserve more than the two of us,
torn open and shivering with you in the dark.
—from Advent poems

Be-Attitude: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, who are the true children of God.

Prayer

All glory to you, gracious God, for the gift of your Son whom you sent to save us. With the angels, let us praise your name, and tell the earth his story, that all may believe and proclaim your love.

Justice, mercy and peace

act for peace, "the Christmas Bowl people."

Zechariah the priest, father of John the Baptist, with a scroll showing the opening words of the Benedictus; Russian Orthodox icon, early 18th Century, Iconostasis of Kizhi Monastery, Russia.

Adeste Fidelis. Luciano Pavarotti (1976).