Greetings to you at Christmas! This hand painted and hand lettered prayer book is open to the Latin Confiteor prayer opposite an image of the Mother of God nursing the Infant Christ. The artist, perhaps a monk, isn't simply decorating pages but giving us a window into creation as it celebrates the Incarnation — God, who in limitless imagination gives us the plants and the animals, joins us in humility, a tiny child crying for his mother's milk. I see forest strawberries here, violets, a wild geranium, butterflies and other creeping things. We might imagine sitting quietly with this prayer book open on our laps. Just to hold it silently would be a prayer.
And here is a wonderful Christmas poem by Robert Herrick (16th/17th century) celebrating the birth of Christ. What lovely images: December turned to May...the chilling winter's morn smiling like a corn field or fragrant like a just-mowed field. The third verse refers to Christ as the world's darling. We might read the poem a second or third time before listening to the Choir of King's College, Cambridge sing the verses which have been set to music by the English composer, John Rutter. I pass it on to you with a blessing and gratitude for the cyber community we share here — may you live your own unique self as truthfully and as beautifully as Jesus lived his.
