While for those in our secular society, the Christmas Season begins on the Friday following Thanksgiving (something that FDR started to try and jump start the economy during the Great Depression). However, for the Christian faith communities, the Christmas Season begins on Christmas Eve at the first liturgy of that day and extends (at least in the Catholic Church) through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the final of the three Theophanies in which Jesus is revealed as the anointed One of God (the first was the revelation to the shepherds, the second was the revelation to the Magi).
Every year, I compose a poem for Christmas. After the horrific year we have experienced on all levels of our lives as humans throughout the world, I have composed this poem at the end of this year, and, in hope for the year 2021. For me, Christmas is no longer about remembering what was at the first coming of Jesus. Rather, Christmas is more about awaiting the second coming of Jesus.
Here is the poem:
A CHRISTMAS PRAYER POEM FOR 2020
Exiled to our homes,
We sit, so many of us alone.
Outside, in a world awhirl,
In which darkness and fear swirl,
We peer for your light,
A respite from our soul’s blight.
In his mountain cave, a grieved,
You appeared to Elijah in a breeze.
Young Mary in the midst of her chores
Surprised by the Angel’s word.
Shepherds startled from a drowsy watch
By the Angels exultant shout.
We seek for that which so many long,
A “Glory Hallelujah!” song.
As this year ends,
O loving God, send
Us the reprieve which we seek,
In the One born so humble and meek.
Whose word set straight the crooked road,
And valleys and mountains laid low
In which the lion and lamb peacefully lay,
And children and asps safely play.
Our world awaits your loving embrace,
May your peace fill our dwelling place.
© 2020. By Robert Charles Wagner.
