Tag Archives: nativity

A perfect angel

Posted on December 24, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

That was when the angel first realized that they might just have made a smidgen of an error, a bit of a mistake.

“Not that way,” the angel cried into the increasingly empty night. “You’re supposed to run towards Bethlehem! A baby has been born this night and, oh, what have I done?” Continue reading →

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Nativity

Posted on December 24, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Not by might the almighty shoulders a way into the world, but on borrowed strength, the muscles of his mother conspiring to bring him to birth;  Not by right does he claim his throne but humbles himself to the stable stall and is fed by … Continue reading →

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The gift

Posted on December 23, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Wrapped in flesh and tenderness – the fragile feet, the faltering hands – a hunger was born, squalling for a landscape flowing with milk and kindness. Little did the wise know, still less kings that this small and helpless this … Continue reading →

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Awaiting glory

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

The stars have turned cold awaiting their chance to shine shrouded in clouds watching the child swaddled in hope and fear crossing the desert braving the sea lullabied in a bomb shelter –a mother wearied by the wake father haunted by the absence of a ghost spirit sibling … Continue reading →

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Advent (the second coming)

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

There is no cloud of glory can define, no gates of heaven can confine; there is no dogma, doggerel, or doctrine can describe, no earnest imitation reinscribe him.  Christ’s coming cannot be constrained or restrained by our rituals of mortality.Our candles are dimmed, our illuminated manuscripts … Continue reading →

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Halfway

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

On the sixth day, halfway through Christmas, with the wholesomeness of God’s love lying in a manger and the heartlessness of Herod running riot in the streets; with God’s Incarnate One being prepared for his first wound, and his mother slowly healing, but her catching her heart in her mouth each time he sighs; on the sixth day, Joseph half-turns back, forgetting to pack up the bread he had picked up before the baby cried, his heart halfway to heaven and his spirit halfway to madness with the wonder of it all. Continue reading →

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Solstice

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

This poem first appeared at Bearings Online, a publication of the Collegeville Institute, at last year’s winter solstice Solstice At the abyss of the yearthe sun is silent;but in the bleak midwintersomething shiftsA fearful hope, homunculus,wakes the woman: lightbeyond the … Continue reading →

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Bethlehem

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Rosalind C Hughes

In the ancient city, haunted by memories of feast and famine, exile and exodus, the earth itself makes room, Creation shifting and splitting as angels sing Glory out of cold stars shining with old light. Out of the holy darkness, … Continue reading →

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Epiphany wisdom, old and new

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

The picture that we expect to see is not always the one that is painted by God. Continue reading →

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Consider hibernation

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

a sabbatical of sorts… Continue reading →

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