29th December
Day 5 of the Octave of Christmas
Christ the Lord is born today;
today, the Saviour has appeared.
Earth echoes songs of angel choirs,
archangels’ joyful praise.
Today on earth his friends exult.
Glory to God in the highest, alleluia.
12 Days of Christmas Carol:
On the fifth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me five Gold Rings: The first five books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, the history of man’s fall from grace
Poem: Malcolm Guite – “Refugee”
We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
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The featured image is “The Adoration of the Christ Child,” by School of Jan Joest (circa 1450–1519). This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
