Baby Born on Christmas

Follower of Jan Joest of Kalkar, the Adoration of the Christ Child

Lo, the baby born on Christmas~

            Sisters, can you hear the sound?
Angels singing Alleluia,
            angels here and all around.
He is sweet as Heaven’s clover
            meadows in the morning sun
fed by love and living water.
            Feed, O sacred spring, in us
hope that clings at summer’s end
            as petals to the dying rose.
Then we shall sing Alleluia!
            Then shall all God’s creatures know
how the baby came in winter
            to a dark and barren land.
Brothers, can you see the tender
            vine upon the desert sand?
Even as the clouds of death
            cast their shadows o’er the ground,
victorious are life and breath.
            Oh, hear the angel carols now,
Noel! Glory, Alleluia!
            fills the mountains and the sky.
We too sing him Alleluia!
            Sing for him a lullaby.

Underneath the brittle
surface of the lake
creatures keep their vigil.
Soon the land will wake
seeds at rest before their
season has begun,
sleeping until morning,
waiting for the sun.

Life does not surrender
when the dry leaves stung
by the frost recover,
yielding one by one.
When the wind blows bitter
o’er the frozen earth,
life comes new in winter
with the baby’s birth.

We are born anew then,
clean and fresh as morning.
All has been forgiven,
seventy times seven,
long before we seek it.
On the wind, the breath of
grace descends; receive it.
Breathe, and breathe it in.

Lo, the baby born in winter~

            Children, this we celebrate
on Christmas, for his innocence
            is born in us today.