Thomas Merton’s poem Advent, is a a good beginning for reflection this Season

“Advent

Charm with your stainlessness these
winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly, vivider in the fiery dark,
you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the
wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in
Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed
by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over
all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets’ stately setting,

Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!”

From the Collected Poems of Thomas Merton

Daily Devotions and other Christmas resources can be found at this Link – Devotions for Advent to Epiphany