Saturday, November 26, 2011

"Advent"

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent in the Calendar of the church. Advent is the four weeks prior to Christmas or The Feast of the Christ Child where Christians prepare for the coming of the Christ.

Here is a poem by Thomas Merton:

Advent

Charm with your stainlessness these winter
  nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly vivider in the fiery dark,
  you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry
   earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in
   Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed
   by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over
   all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,

Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

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