The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.
— Chesterton
Merry Christmas to all!
Comments (7)
Here's a similar one from Chesterton:
Any agnostic or atheist whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards, whether he likes it or not, an association in his mind between two ideas that most of mankind must regard as remote from each other; the idea of a baby and the idea of the unknown strength that sustains the stars. His instincts and imagination can still connect them, when his reason can no longer see the need of the connection; for him there will always be some savour of religion about the mere picture of a mother and a baby; some hint of mercy and softening about the mere mention of the dreadful name of God.
From The Everlasting Man as quoted in Alvaro de Silva, ed., Brave New Family
Merry Christmas!
Posted by Lydia | December 22, 2007 11:38 AM
Marvelous. That's better than mine.
Posted by Paul J Cella | December 22, 2007 11:42 AM
Here's another one:
The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)
The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown.
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.
Posted by William Luse | December 22, 2007 7:33 PM
The House of Christmas
There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.
A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.
This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
G.K. Chesterton
__________________
Posted by Kevin | December 22, 2007 9:11 PM
I was just yesterday reading that one Kevin posted. By the way, perhaps it's laziness in me, but I do appreciate that da Silva book I cited above. It brings together excerpts from Chesterton on family issues from abortion to eugenics to Christmas. A useful thing to have, and it has quite a few of his Christmas poems, as well as several of his poems to his wife.
Posted by Lydia | December 23, 2007 3:32 PM
I'm sure Lydia you too wish Chesterton could have reached Rowan Williams before his issued his joyless re-interpretation of the Nativity this week;
"Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate."
G.K. Chesterton
Posted by Kevin | December 24, 2007 2:31 PM
For my friends at WWWtW, here is one more poetic offering on this joyous day:
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
If you lacked simplicity, how then
should this fall to you that midnight skies
are ashine with? God, who stormed at men,
mild in you now comes to mortal eyes.
That he’s not more great – does this surprise?
What is greatness? Sweepingly his fate
cuts across all human measurings.
No star, even, has a path so straight.
Look, these coming now are great, these kings
dragging to your lap, as presents, things
which, they hold, are greater far than all.
Maybe they astound you, gifts like these –
look, though, how within your folded shawl
he excels already all one sees.
Amber, shipped across great distances,
golden ornaments and fragrant spice
such as makes the heavy senses swim:
these were pleasures over in a trice,
and regretted when their power grew dim.
But (as you will see): joy comes of him.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
(from The Life of Mary, tr. J.B. Leishman)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Posted by Rodak | December 25, 2007 9:09 AM