Sabbath Keeping

~ Maple tree, side yard ~ 

 
"Blessed be the Child who today delights Bethlehem,
Blessed be the Newborn who today made humanity young again.
Blessed be the Fruit who bowed Himself down for our hunger.
Blessed be the Gracious One who suddenly enriched all of our poverty and filled our need.
Blessed be He whose mercy inclined Him to heal our sickness.
Blessed is He whom freedom crucified, when He permitted it.
Blessed is He whom also the wood bore, when He allowed it.
Blessed is He whom even the grave enclosed, when He set limits to Himself.
Blessed is He whose will brought Him to the womb and to birth and to the bosom and to growth.
Blessed is He whose changes revived our humanity.
Blessed is He who engraved our soul and adorned and bethrothed her to Him.
Blessed is He who made our body a Tabernacle for His hiddenness.
Blessed is He who with our tongue interpreted His secrets."

~ St. Ephraem the Syrian ~

"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created." ~ James 1:18 ~

"Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlesness...Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks intou our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted."

~ Paul Tillich ~

"I walked a mile with Pleasure,
  She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
  For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorryw
  And ne'er a word said she,
But oh, the thyings I learned from her
  When Sorrow walked with me!"

~ Robert Browning Hamilton ~

 "Devotion is really neither more nor less than a general inclination and readiness to do that which we know to be acceptable to God. ... To be truly devout, we must not only do God's will, but we must do it cheerfully.

~ Francis De Sales ~

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." ~ Colossians 3:2 ~

Until next time,

Blessings ~ Christmas Season ~ God's Holy Word ~ wise men and women ~ poetry ~ choices ~