Christmas Verse 2017

[Harvey_Mozolak]

expired... and removed... message me if you need to read or read again. 

[Weedon]

Are you writing proleptically? Or is this Christmas Verse 2017??? Thank you for sharing, either way.

[Harvey_Mozolak]

Will, I am posting in what is called, in the field-- pre-modified title writing-- and now thanks to you time has stood still (as it did at Bethlehem the blessed.... at least in C.S. Lewis Christmas poem... oh, the favete, as he put it...)...  I do hope you-all know that poem, The Turn of the Tide, it is my Christmas classic...  and excuse my misrepresentation of the present time...  sorry

Are you writing proleptically? Or is this Christmas Verse 2017??? Thank you for sharing, either way.

[J. Thomas Shelley]

In Sentence Form
Harvey S. Mozolak

The timing of salvation is very helpfully drawn tightly to the cross but we should not ignore that the first confinement was not by Pilate’s police but by the Blessed Virgin’s womb and the earliest nails were manger straw, the preliminary purple robe of ridicule was wrapping God in swaddling cloth and Joseph may not have been an Cyrenean but his hard palms clumsily catching the Incarnate’s leap from heaven to earth were well splintered from wood in the Fall’s condemning brow-sweat.  And these but the beginning hours of the Passion according to Christ.

Magnificent!

You express in prose the beautiful melodic and poetic phrases connecting the Idomelion of the Ninth Hour of the Royal Hours of the Nativity and the Royal Hours of Good Friday:

For the Nativity:

+   Today is born of the Virgin Him Who holdest all creation in the hollow of His hand.
+   He Whose essence is untouchable is wrapped in swaddling clothes as a babe.
+   The God Who from of old established the heavens lieth in a manger.
+   He Who showered the people with manna in the wilderness feedeth on milk from the breasts.
+   And the bridegroom of the Church calleth the Magi.
+   And the Son of the Virgin accepteth gifts from them.
+   We worship Thy Nativity, O Christ.
+   Show us also Thy divine Theophany.

For Good Friday:

"Today is hung upon the Tree, He Who did hang the land in the midst of the waters.
A Crown of thorns crowns Him Who is King of Angels.
He is wrapped about with the purple of mockery Who wrapped the Heavens with clouds.
He received buffetings Who freed Adam in Jordan.
He was transfixed with nails Who is the Bridegroom of the Church.
He was pierced with a spear Who is the Son of the Virgin.
We worship Thy Passion, O Christ.
Show also unto us thy glorious Resurrection."

[Harvey_Mozolak]

at some time, I may have read these portions of the Orthodox liturgy and of course the axis of plaiting the events in straw and thorn has been noted well previous to my thoughts and words...  many of the early English carols play with the seriousness of our Lord's birth transfixed by his death...    I am not sure whether I wrote this as part of a sermon or as an attempt at one of the new and popular forms called prose poems... and of course the pun on punishment and grammatical structure....   

[J. Thomas Shelley]

Aye.

"Nail, spear shall piece Him through,
The Cross be borne for me, for you,
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh,
The Babe the son of Mary."

[Harvey_Mozolak]

I guess over the years of Christmas Eve and Day preaching, if you somehow compiled my paragraphs and themes, you would find that I made the passion and cross connection to the manger and holy adoration of the mystery and depth more than the sweetness of the night event and even the joy to the world holiday happiness stuff.  Some did and some did not like that I suppose even though my own parish folks by in large got used to it and maybe even into with me.  There was a genuine like on the part of some for the quiet preparation Advent somehow parsed out from the waves of cultural observance.  Evening Prayer can be a center to that. 

[J. Thomas Shelley]

There was a genuine like on the part of some for the quiet preparation Advent somehow parsed out from the waves of cultural observance.  Evening Prayer can be a center to that.

Indeed....Great Vespers is just a few hours away.

The other beautiful anchor--or perhaps, series of buoys--for the Orthodox Nativity Fast (Advent) is the plethora of Saints' Days which permeate the season:   The Entrance of the Theotokos (Nov 22); St. Katherine (Nov 25); St. Andrew the first-called Apostle (Nov 30); St Barbara & St. John of Damascus (Dec 4); of course, St. Nicholas (December 6); the Conception of the Theotokos by Anna (December 9)*;St. Spyridon (December 11); Sts Lucy and Herman of Alaska (December 13)*; St. Eleftherios (December 15); and St. Igantius of Antioch the God-receiver (December 22).

All except two (*) have been or will be observed with Orthros & Divine Liturgy at one of the local Orthodox parishes.

"Save us, O Son of God,
Who art wondrous in Thy saints;
To you we sing:   Alleluia!"

[Harvey_Mozolak]

ah, yes... and then there is St. Macy, the Martyr St. Target and....

went to a seasonal music thing at a large Methodist church a mile away.... the program was half southern Christian sort of and the other half holiday junk....

they have a large stage, and fake large birch trees scattered here and there (I hope it was part of a play or something), a traditional Advent Wreath, big Pie-anno and get this, in the middle a fake stained-glass window with a cross in the middle of it looking like a stage prop of a prot chapel...  my, my, my....  and of course a Chrismon tree....