There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost – how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.

This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

A very merry Christmas to all, from everyone here at Salisbury Cathedral pic.twitter.com/vcAUUOhyzq

— Salisbury Cathedral (@SalisburyCath) December 25, 2025

Ever since I first heard it, my favorite Christmas song–KSH.

Lyrics–The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit, and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I’m weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be
of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

"Be like a tree
planted
by streams of water".
(Psalm 1 : 3)
Apple Tree by Lake Zurich, 1914
Karl Mediz (1868-1945) pic.twitter.com/xNVnxoo0Mg

— Jim Beattie (@JimBeattie18) April 16, 2023

“The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man– that the second person of the Godhead became the ‘second man’ (1 Cor. 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that He took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as He was human.

Here are two mysteries for the price of one—the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus.It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. ‘The Word became flesh’ (John 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.

And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.”

–J I Packer, Knowing God, cited by yours truly in last Sunday’s sermon

Its #ChristmasDay , so here is the Saint Columba Altarpiece (or Adoration of the Kings) by Rogier van der Weyden, 1450s. pic.twitter.com/FnoVMUJclk

— Dr Stephen Donnachie (@SteveDonnachie) December 25, 2025

Grim was the world and grey last night: The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light, The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea, And over the mountains’
teeth It whistled bitter-cold and free, As a sword leapt from its
sheath.

The lord of snows upreared his head; His mantle long and pale Upon the
bitter blast was spread And hung o’er hill and dale. The world was
blind, the boughs were bent, All ways and paths were wild: Then the
veil of cloud apart was rent, And here was born a Child.

The ancient dome of heaven sheer Was pricked with distant light; A
star came shining white and clear Alone above the night. In the dale
of dark in that hour of birth One voice on a sudden sang: Then all the
bells in Heaven and Earth Together at midnight rang.

Mary sang in this world below: They heard her song arise O’er mist and
over mountain snow To the walls of Paradise, And the tongue of many
bells was stirred in Heaven’s towers to ring When the voice of mortal
maid was heard, That was mother of Heaven’s King.

Glad is the world and fair this night With stars about its head, And
the hall is filled with laughter and light, And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring With bells of Christendom, And Gloria,
Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.

Buongiorno!

La Natività, c.1165.
Mosaico/Autore anonimo
Cappella Palatina, #Palermo #Italia
STELLA PARIT SOLEM ROSA FLOREM FORMA DECOREM (Una stella diede alla luce il sole, una rosa un fiore, la forma la bellezza).
I tre Magi sono bianchi!, pastori giunti in fretta con offerte. pic.twitter.com/7tbXOWEGUu

— Miguel Calabria (@MiguelCalabria3) December 23, 2025

She was five,
sure of the facts,
and recited them
with slow solemnity
convinced every word
was revelation.

She said
they were so poor
they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
to eat
and they went a long way from home
without getting lost. The lady rode
a donkey, the man walked, and the baby
was inside the lady.
They had to stay in a stable
with an ox and an ass (hee-hee)
but the Three Rich Men found them
because a star lited the roof.
Shepherds came and you could
pet the sheep but not feed them.
Then the baby was borned.
And do you know who he was?
Her quarter eyes inflated
to silver dollars.
The baby was God.

And she jumped in the air
whirled around, dove into the sofa
and buried her head under the cushion
which is the only proper response
to the Good News of the Incarnation.

–John Shea, The Hour of the Unexpected; one of my favourite Christmas poems, read every year on this day

'And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.'
John 1: 14

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas from all of us at Westminster Abbey! pic.twitter.com/TwNZ9sXQlY

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) December 25, 2025

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever.  Amen.

THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD

"The Word is made flesh, and yet He remains silent. He teaches us more by His silence in the crib than by all the discourses of the wise.

If we wish to understand the ways of God, we must kneel at Bethlehem. There we learn that God acts not by force,… pic.twitter.com/CX0Nl6A5IB

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) December 25, 2025

But you, O Bethlehem Eph′rathah,
    who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
    from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
    when she who is in travail has brought forth;
then the rest of his brethren shall return
    to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.

–Micah 5:2-4

He was pleased, for our instruction, that His body should be laid upon straw; because He knew how dangerous the love of our own flesh, and the false peace with its concupiscence, is for our salvation; since it risks the loss of the fruit of the labours which He endured for us. pic.twitter.com/hr11ZjFqJq

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) December 25, 2025