Quote/s of the Day – 25 December – The Nativity of Our Lord, Christmas Day
“Open wide your door
to the One Who comes.
Open your soul,
throw open the depths of your heart
to see the riches of simplicity,
the treasures of peace,
the sweetness of grace.
Open your heart and run to meet
the Sun of Eternal light
that illuminates all men.”
St Ambrose (340-397)
Father and Doctor of the Church
“Christ is the Morning Star,
Who, when the night
of this world is past,
gives to His saints,
the promise of the light of life,
and opens everlasting day.”
St Bede the Venerable (673-735)
Father & Doctor of the Church
“Let all your desires then,
be directed toward Him,
the Infinite One,
the Giver of all Good.”
Bl Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306)
A Child My Choice
By St Robert Southwell (1561-1595)
Martyr
Let folly praise that fancy loves,
I praise and love that Child
Whose heart no thought,
Whose tongue no word,
Whose hand no deed defiled.
I praise Him most, I love Him best,
all praise and love is His;
While Him I love, in Him I live
and cannot live amiss.
Love’s sweetest mark,
laud’s highest theme,
man’s most desired light,
To love Him life,
to leave Him death,
to live in Him delight.
He mine by gift,
I His by debt, thus each to other due;
First friend He was,
best friend He is,
all times will try Him true.
Though young, yet wise;
though small, yet strong;
though man, yet God He is:
As wise, He knows;
as strong, He can;
as God, He loves to bless.
His knowledge rules,
His strength defends,
His love doth cherish all;
His birth our joy,
His life our light,
His death our end of thrall.
Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants,
yet do His angels sing;
Out of His tears,
His sighs and throbs,
doth bud a joyful spring.
Almighty Babe, Whose tender arms
can force all foes to fly,
Correct my faults,
protect my life,
direct me when I die!
Moonless Darkness
By Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ (1844-1889)
Moonless darkness stands between.
Past, the Past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem-Star may lead me
To the sight of Him, Who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me pure, Lord, Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord, Thou wert lowly.
Now beginning and alway,
Now begin, on Christmas Day.
‘Ex Ore Infantium’
(From the Mouth of Chrildren)
By Francis Thompson (1859–1907)
LITTLE Jesus, wast Thou shy
Once and just so small as I?
And what did it feel like to be
Out of Heaven and just like me?
Didst Thou sometimes think of there,
And ask where all the Angels were?
I should think that I would cry
For my house all made of sky;
I would look about the air,
And wonder where my Angels were;
And at waking ’twould distress me—
Not an Angel there to dress me!
Hadst Thou ever any toys,
Like us little girls and boys?
And didst Thou play in Heaven with all
The Angels that were not too tall,
With stars for marbles? Did the things
Play Can you see me? through their wings?
And did thy Mother let Thee spoil
Thy robes, with playing on our soil?
How nice to have them always new
In Heaven because ’twas quite clean blue!
Didst Thou kneel at night to pray
And didst Thou join thy hands, this way?
And did they tire sometimes, being young,
And make the prayer seem very long?
And dost Thou like it best, that we
Should join our hands to pray to Thee?
I used to think, before I knew,
The prayer not said unless we do.
And did thy Mother at the night
Kiss Thee and fold the clothes in right?
And didst Thou feel quite good in bed,
Kiss’d and sweet and Thy prayers said?
Thou canst not have forgotten all
That it feels like to be small
And Thou know’st I cannot pray
To Thee in my father’s way—
When Thou wast so little, say,
Couldst Thou talk thy Father’s way?—
So, a little Child, come down
And hear a child’s tongue like thy own;
Take me by the hand and walk
And listen to my baby-talk.
To Thy Father show my prayer
(He will look, Thou art so fair),
And say: ‘O Father, I, Thy Son,
Bring the prayer of a little one.’
And He will smile that children’s tongue,
Has not changed, since Thou wast young!
Francis Joseph Thompson (16 December 1859 – 13 November 1907) was an English Poet and Catholic Mystic. One of his most famous works is the rivetting “The Hound of Heaven.”
Among Thompson’s devotees was the young JR R Tolkien, who purchased a volume of Thompson’s works in 1913–1914 and later said that, it was an important influence on his own writing
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