Thistle Cove Farm

"The sun will no more be your light by day

nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you

For the Lord will be your everlasting light,

and your God will be your glory."

~ Isaiah 60:19 ~

"Before the paling of the stars,

Before the winter morn,

Before the earliest cockcrow,

Jesus Christ was born:

Born in a stable,

Cradles in a manger,

In the world His hands had made

Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep

In Jerusalem,

Young and old lay fast asleep

In crowded Bethlehem;

Saint and Angel, ox and ass,

Kept a watch together

Before the Christmas daybreak

In the winter weather.

 

Jesus on his mother's breast

In the stable cold,

Spotless Lamb of God was He,

Shepherd of the fold:

Let us kneel with Mary maid,

With Joseph bent and hoary,

With Saint and Angel, ox and ass,

To hail the King of Glory."

~ Christina Georgina Rossetti ~

 

"I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep.

There is nothing I can give you which you have not got;

but there is much, very much,

that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

 

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts

find rest in it today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden

in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of this world is but a shadow.

Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy!

 

There is radiance and glory in the darkness

could we but see, and to see, we have only to look.

I beseech you to look.

Life is so generous a giver, but we,

judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as

ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering,

and you will find beneath it a living splendor,

woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the Angel's hand

that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial,

a sorrow, or a duty; believe, me that Angel's hand is there,

and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.

 

Our joys, too: be not content with them as joys.

They, too, conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning

and of purpose, that you will find earth

but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then, to claim it:

that is all! But courage you have;

and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together,

winding, through unknown country, home.

 

And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you.

Not quite as the world sends greetings,

but with profound esteem, and with a prayer

that for you, now and forever,

the day breaks, and the shadows flee away."

~ Fra Giovanni ~

"Nor crown, no robe, nor spice I bring

As offering unto Christ, my King.

Yet have I brought a gift the Child

May not despise, however small,

For here I lay my heart today,

And it is full of love to all

Take Thou the poor but loyal thing

My only tribute, Christ, my King!"

~ Eugene Field  ~

"In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When he comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ...

What can I give him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb,

If I were a Wise Man

I would do my part--

Yet what I can I give him,

Give my heart."

 

~ Christina Georgina Rossetti ~

~ Gloucester Cathedral Choir ~

"And when the chief Shepherd appears

you will receive a crown of glory

that will never fade away."

~ 1 Peter 5:4 ~

 

If you have a name for the prayer list, please let  me know. Each week you must let me know if you've someone who needs prayer.

 

Prayer Keeping ~ Jim ~ Donna ~ GJ ~ Bill ~ Mary and family ~