Wisdom Wednesday

Today is the Feast of St. John of the Cross, so we're sharing a poem of his on Christ's birth for Wisdom Wednesday.

************ 

Romance IX, Of the Birth of Christ

When the interval of waiting

For His birth its course had run,

Straight from out His bridal chamber

Came the Bridegroom, God the Son.

 

Once on earth, with arms extended

He embrac’d His heavenly Bride,

And the gracious Mother laid Him

In the manger, at her side.

 

All around that helpless baby

Animals were standing by;

Men sang songs of glad rejoicing;

Angels join’d their songs on high,

 

Celebrating the betrothal

‘Twixt the Bridegroom and the Bride,

While the Almighty, in the manger,

As an infant, wept and cried.

 

So the Bride those tears as jewels

Brought to the betrothal-rite,

And the Maid was lost in wonder

As she saw so rare a sight.

 

Man was full of joy and gladness;

God was shedding tears as man.

Ne’er was such a strange mutation

Since the ages first began.

- St. John of the Cross