At the Manger Mary Sings

My starting-point during tonight's Christmas Midnight Mass sermon will be a poem by W H Auden, 'At the Manger Mary Sings'. You may like to read it through:

O shut your bright eyes that mine must endanger
With their watchfulness; protected by its shade
Escape from my care: what can you discover
From my tender look but how to be afraid?
Love can but confirm the more it would deny.
Close your bright eye.

Sleep. What have you learned from the womb that bore you
But an anxiety your Father cannot feel?
Sleep. What will the flesh that I gave do for you,
Or my mother love, but tempt you from his will?
Why was I chosen to teach his Son to weep?
Little One, sleep.

Dream. In human dreams earth ascends to Heaven
Where no one need pray nor ever feel alone.
In your first few hours of life here, O have you
Chosen already what death must be your own?
How soon will you start on the Sorrowful Way?
Dream while you may.


I'll invite you to think about the implications of Jesus, the Word of God taking human flesh and living in our midst. 
'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth...'

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