26th December, St. Stephen
Day 2 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 second day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me two Turtle Doves: The Old and New Testaments
Poem: Denise Levertov – “On The Mystery of The Incarnation”
It’s when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.
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The featured image is “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1770), by Anton Raphael Mengs, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
