Tag Archives: Bethlehem

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Would the World, Heaven’s Message Understand? (Reflective Verse 5 of 9 for Advent Watch )

Does Gabriel in God’s presence speak?
An angel, whose message is the Lord’s.
What are humans that heaven should mind?
What are mortal children in God’s sight?

These lot even angels envy much,
Born is God’s own, a child in their kind!
Gabriel wonders, telling Christ’s birth;
Would the world, his message understand?

Kings carry greed for riches and pow’r,
Shepherds tend to sheep in fields at dark,
Bethlehem sleeps, careless about Christ,
A keeper grants a shed, no place else.

Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph…
A remnant watches for God’s promise.
Elizabeth, Ana, and Simeon…
And John in the womb will know comes Christ.

Sent to speak to the least of people,
The angels proclaim heaven’s message.
Would the world, their message understand?
Of God’s love for the least now send.

~ S. J. Earl P. Canlas

(We are seeing the last few weeks of 2013 as we move to celebrate the Christmas spirit. We should tremble at the thought of the Christmas story for we protect the powerful among us, even today. We glorify their exploits more than justice that God seeks from them. Shake in the mystery of God’s light breaking through the darkness.)

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The Great One like a Blade of Grass Bends (Reflective Verse 4 of 9 for Advent Watch )

Why should the night this time be diff’rent?
What blows on the blade of grass that bends?
We watch for the sheep, no sleep for the night,
We look over flocks, no rest yet in sight.

Behold a light peeps in the darkness;
A song proclaims peace, but what is that?
To shepherds awake in lonely fields?
To a poor dirty band of tired lads?

Why would God favor them with such news?
The birth at Bethlehem of Jesus,
The Lord and Savior for us all,
Not to the great but to the worthless.

Surely the night this time is diff’rent;
The Great One like a blade of grass bends.
Lo, shepherds not for sheep at dark watch;
But look for Christ in a manger rests.

~ S. J. Earl P. Canlas

(We are seeing the last few weeks of 2013 as we move to celebrate the Christmas spirit. We should tremble at the thought of the Christmas story for we protect the powerful among us, even today. We glorify their exploits more than justice that God seeks from them. Shake in the mystery of God’s light breaking through the darkness.)

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