Friday, December 12, 2014

O Holy Night and the Book of Revelations-Day 12





Oh, humble Mary,
Gracious one-we seek comfort
In your loving arms












A Christmas Card - Written in 1947

When the white stars talk together like sisters

And when the winter hills

Raise their grand semblance in the freezing night,

Somewhere one window

Bleeds like the brown eye of an open force.

Hills, stars,

White stars that stand above the eastern stable.

Look down and offer Him.

The dim adoring light of your belief.

Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.

Shall not this Child

(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)

Conquer the winter of our hateful century?

And when His Lady Mother leans upon the crib,

Lo, with what rapiers

Those two loves fence and flame their brillancy!

Here in this straw lie planned the fires

That will melt all our sufferings:

He is our Lamb, our holocaust!

And one by one the shepherds, with their snowy feet,

Stamp and shake out their hats upon the stable dirt,

And one by one kneel down to look upon their Life.

--Thomas Merton
(more on Thomas Merton here)

The images you see here are, of course, a conglomeration. I suppose I should be using an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe since today is her Feast Day. But, I got carried away with these images. The last image-the collage, is what I created for the Christmas card that I am sending out this year. It fuses the birth of Christ with the foretelling of his arrival in the Book Of Revelations (Rv 11:19a; 12: 1-6a, 10ab).
I find all of these images to be very powerful. As women, we tend to not embrace that power that lies within us. Let this be a reminder that we do indeed have potential beyond our wildest imagination. Tapping into that will always be a work in progress and should span our lifetime-but, oh, what a difference we can make!
A tradition that has gone on for many years now-where a group of bloggers (and anyone is welcome to join) will post for the first 12 days of December images that represent the Mother of Jesus. It ends on the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Some will write amazing words of inspiration and prayer. Others tell a story. Often, the image alone conveys the message and that is enough.
Come see what others have shared over at Rebecca's page. Feel free to join in with us whether if it's for one day or all 12!

11 comments:

A Bit of the Blarney said...

Truly beautiful! Wishing you well!! Cathy

Laura said...

May we all be blessed with such tenderness.

Hettienne Grobler said...

Oh yes, to remember what we are capable of and even more so if we stand together. Wonderful poem and images - these twelve days brought such focus again for me. Thank you for your contributions

J C said...

This is a beautiful post, and your Christmas card is awesome!

gma said...

The images you chose to share are very beautiful. I have enjoyed your posts these past twelve days. Good wishes to you.

Priti Lisa said...

oh Paula, you seem to always find what i missed...your christmas greeting card is truly beautiful! ♥

Lea said...

Dear Paula, it is so lovely to be visiting here, seeing your amazing images, your haiku, and descriptions. Thank you!

Gillena Cox said...

nice composition

have a good weekend

much love...

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

Merton is one of my favorites. Thanks for including his words of wisdom and grace here.

Lenora said...

the blue positively vibrates! Wise Merten's! thanks for the journey

rebecca said...

thank you dearest friend for sharing so generously your light and love these 12 days together! i will never forget the day we were blessed enough to meet! thank you for your kindest most generous heart.
xo

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