Tag Archives: Christmas

Be Ready For The Infant King

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Nine days to get ready! Time enough for a novena.

Who will come to the stable
On Christmas Day?
And what will they take away?

Wise men, steadfast and earnest, came,
Instead of palace music,
They heard the donkey brae.
A lowly sound and sight,
Yet their wonder unallayed.

Many come rejoicing,
To behold the Newborn King,
Bowing low,
While angels sing.

Christ’s comes for all
But not all come.
Some come, behold, then fall away,
Being rootless, they merrily go their way.

Father God prepared a voice
To announce His Only Word,
A messenger, born before, to go before.
Another child, spared Ramah’s plight
To live and pierce Sin’s long night
John, O, John, still cries, “Repent!”

Prepare if you would follow.
At Jerusalem’s Gate,
Many cried, “Messiah,”
Who would soon cry, “Crucify.”

Whose will will you do,
When the music fades in life?
Pride prides itself on ‘my way,’
Confounds with will and strife.

Without a ready, willing heart,
Nothing changes Christmas Day.
Corrupt hearts go on corrupting,
All the while the kingly Infant cries,
As throughout His life,
“I am the Way.”

Whose heart will live in yours
As angelic songs fade away.
Will you simply leave the stable
To follow your own way?

Come, O come, rejoicing!
Praying for a change.
Receive this Babe within your Heart;
The humble He teaches His Way.

By Joann Nelander

Advent – Prayer in Waiting

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Advent is upon my soul.
Divine gift of season,
I listen for the cry of a First Born Son,
Begotten before Time begun,
And fleshed in the Virgin’s womb.

I come to her,
Who is the Ark,
Your Mercy Seat.
Kneeling beside her
In these pregnant moments,
I lay my head upon her lap.

Her wonderment and awe
In steadfast contemplation,
Inspire angels’ songs.

I hear their reverent voices
In my night.
Their chorus bids me come.
Come to the stable of simplicity.

Leave the noisy city for a deserted place,
The Wilderness whose hidden way
Leads to the waiting manger,
Now, in expectant readiness,
For the Food that will feed
The hungry world.

My Advent prayer:
Come, O Holy Infant!
Come to my straw!

By Joann Nelander

Christmas Miracle – Mother and Child

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ABC reports:

“Hand of God” Seen in Christmas Eve Revival of Mother, Baby.

Quoting the dad:

“My legs went out from underneath me,” Mike Hermanstorfer said Tuesday. “I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me.”

Dr. Stephanie Martin, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs  said:

“She had no signs of life. No heartbeat, no blood pressure, she wasn’t breathing,” said Martin, who had rushed to Hermanstorfer’s room to help. “The baby was, it was basically limp, with a very slow heart rate.”


Happy Holy Days! Getting Ready?

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Get ready!  Here come the Holy Days.  We seem to be picking up speed as this year closes in a burst of joyous holy light.  Will we be able to see it?  It’s like waiting for a meteor shower.  Will the clouds obscure our view? There are clouds all around, there always are, but the eye of our soul have a lens like no other.  Hearts polished by prayer, by care and as always, too, by sacrifice, can see light raking the darkness.  No Alice through the looking glass here.  Christmas is for sober souls and vigilant seekers.