Beautiful Boy

 Beautiful Boy

"And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?"

Sir John Betjeman

 COME, EMMANUEL

Strange, this creating God of ours- 
whose nature is love, and yet
whose "natural events" can
literally take your breath away.

Strange, this redeeming God of ours­
who insists on battering the boundaries
of our common-sense systems of belief
with visions, voices and a virgin.

Strange, this sanctifying God of ours­
who will not leave us to our own ways
but who leads us to challenge the world's
doubt, despair and hatred with the divine
paradoxes of faith, hope and love.

Strange, this unfathomable Trinity­
who will not let us balance our account
but rather keeps us in perpetual debt
for all our embarrassment of riches.

Strange, this pervading Presence -
from whom we cannot escape
with whom we find it difficult to live
without whom we know no peace.

Strange, this familiar Father of prodigals­
whose love, too much for one lifetime,
wills that we shall share the
feast of forgiveness and joy
in the epilogue of eternity.

 Strange, this daily advent of
 EMMANUEL

[Chaplain, Col. J. F. Wilson]

Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. 
But because he cannot be at home in it – because he is out of place in it, and yet must be in it – his place is with those others who do not belong, who are rejected because they are regarded as weak;
and with those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, and are tortured, exterminated. 
With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. 

(The Time of No Room by Thomas Merton)

But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! 
We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time.

(Jean Vanier)