What can I say to you this Christmas morning, but turn to him? Let his light shine on you. Ask to have your vision expanded, that you may see the world as he sees it, for his vision for his world is the world’s greatest hope for the human race to live in peace and love one another and – if you will excuse the political jargon – build back better.

We are all exhausted by the horrors and privations of Covid. Our world cries out.

I do hope you will have a happy Christmas. And I hope you are able to get together with those you love today, even – as it will be the case with some of my family – it’s on yet another zoom conference. Most of all I hope and pray that in your hearts and imaginations, and even now in this holy Eucharist, you will come to the stable at Bethlehem.

You will come – surprised like the shepherds; doggedly faithful like Joseph; defiantly rejoicing like Mary; amazed like the Magi, and have your life re-directed. Changed, because in this great light you will not just see things differently, you will see them as they truly are, as they are meant to be, at last having the focus of your life shifted, enabling you to see the clear, pure beauty of Christ.

God of God. Light of light. Begotten, not created. O come, let us adore him.

Read it all.

When he's good he's excellent.
Matthias Stom, Adoration of the Shepherds. The fluidity of his brushwork, and such a wonderful colorist. (Radishchev State Art Museum in Saratov.)
MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎄✨🌟 pic.twitter.com/iNo3csvXKH

— Rembrandt's R👀m 🖌 (@RembrandtsRoom) December 25, 2021

Twas much,
that man was
made like God before,
But that God should
be like man
much more

–John Donne (1572-1631)

El Greco, The Nativity (1603-05) pic.twitter.com/ZqvrVaAeMP

— Jane Tim (@JaneTim8) December 25, 2021

Lyrics:

O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentem in praesepio! Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia
O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord. Alleluia!

“My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of his presence? The Incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins.”

–A Grief Observed [London: Faber&Faber, 1961], p.52

Happy Christmas! ' … the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.' [Horae ad usum Rothmagensem, 1498] pic.twitter.com/GGqZ33fpev

— LambethPalaceLibrary (@lampallib) December 25, 2021

We give thee thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to thy Son Jesus Christ, who standeth at thy right hand: where he liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.

26 Dec: Manuscript Illumination with St Stephen in an Initial S, from an Antiphonary
c. 1410–20
Master of the Brussels Initials

(Met Museum)

Here Stephen protomartyr feast #otd carries the stones which caused his death on his head. pic.twitter.com/GQDd10HZyn

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) December 26, 2021

Merciful and most loving God, by whose will and bountiful gift Jesus Christ our Lord humbled himself that he might exalt mankind; and became flesh that he might restore in us the most celestial image; and was born of the Virgin that he might uplift the lowly: Grant unto us the inheritance of the meek, perfect us in thy likeness, and bring us at last to rejoice in beholding thy beauty, and with all thy saints to glorify thy grace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

My top photos on twitter this year. In at no. 5 is the remarkable Arts and Crafts hidden gem by Henry Wilson: St. Mark’s, Brithdir, Wales pic.twitter.com/RffVlOoHws

— Andy Marshall 📸 (@fotofacade) December 27, 2021

The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

–Psalm 28:7

Today is the Third Day of Christmas, so here's some hens, probably not French and maybe not even hens! Continental glass at Ketteringham, Norfolk, a C15 bench end at Stowlangtoft and four at Thrandeston, both Suffolk.#ThirdDayofChristmas #December27 #12DaysofChristmas pic.twitter.com/awkA6eVn0G

— Simon Knott (@last_of_england) December 27, 2021