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!