Tuesday 25 December 2012

Early morning mass

I was up early to do the eight o'clock mass.....we had been warned of heavy rain and thought the path to the church was going to be flooded like last time.....in the event David got up and came with me. All was well and the church was warm....
I didn't do a sermon as such but I  did this.

The scene  in the stable has been drawn again again and no words of mine are ever going to improve on them.....so instead I want to share with you a  short poem by UA Fanthorpe....as she pictures the events  in the stable and all the other animals were trying to get in on the act..

Cat in the Manger   by UA Fanthorpe. 

In the story I’m not there
Ox and ass, arranged at prayer
But me? No where

Anti cat evangelists 
How on earth could you have missed
Such an obvious and able
Occupant of any stable?

Who excluded mouse and rat?
The harmless necessary cat
Who snuggled in with the holy pair?
Me. And my purr.

Matthew , Mark and Luke and John
Who got it wrong
Who left out the cat
Remember that
Wherever He went  in this great affair
I was there!  

Of course he was....and of course the dog....how could the cat and dog have been left out of this scene?

The sheep dog

After the bright lights
And the talking bird
And the singing
And the sky filled up wi wings
And then the silence

Our lads sez
We’d better go then
Stay Shep. Good dog , stay
So I stayed wi t sheep

After they cum back 
It sounded grand what they’d seen
Camels and Kings and such
Wi presents...human kind
Not the sort you can eat
And a baby. Presents were for him
Our lads took him a lamb.

I had to stay behind wi sheep
Pity they didn’t tek me along too
I’m good wi sheep
And the baby might have liked a dog 
After all that myrrh and such.

We are  not even sure of the exact date for this birth but we do know for certain that Jesus was born , was indeed human who felt pain, and anger and who wept at the death of a friend....He was human therefor He had been born....

Today we celebrate that birth....and we greet the Christchild with joy as we thank Him for all his gifts to us, right here in Cornwall. 
Please read the poem with a northern accent! 
I have another mass later.....thats my excuse for publishing the poem again!   
A blessed Christmas to you all



3 comments:

Ray Barnes said...

Thankyou Jean, and to you.
May the new year bring you peace and comfort and such joy as may be found in small things.
Bless you both.

Kevin Scott said...

And the dinosaur too ... One of our Toddler Group children left a dinosaur in the Christmas Crib. "Did they have dinosaurs in the stable?" quipped one of our church members. Well of course, in one sense they did. The whole of creation drawn to that pinpoint where Time and Space collapsed, and the Word was 'YES'.

Revjeanrolt said...

Thank you for that Kevin...of course there was a place in the stable for a dinosaur. Maybe not Tryrannasaurus Rex though.