12 Days of Christmas Carol:
On the ninth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me nine Ladies Dancing: The nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).
Poem: Ruth Pitter – “The Bird on the Tree”
The tree, and its haunting bird,
Are the loves of my heart;
But where is the word, the word,
Oh where is the art,
To say, or even to see,
For a moment of time,
What the Tree and the Bird must be
In the true sublime?
They shine, listening to the soul,
And the soul replies;
But the inner love is not whole,
and the moment dies.
Oh give me before I die
The grace to see
With eternal, ultimate eye,
The Bird and the Tree.
The song in the living Green,
The Tree and the Bird –
Oh have they ever been seen,
Ever been heard?
__________
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The featured image is “Adoration of the Magi” (1490), by Gerard David, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
