Greetings,
Even as we continue to focus on the Advent of the coming reign of Christ in victory, today is December 6 - the feast of St. Nicholas - and we cannot escape the pull of the Saint on our lives. The Bishop of Myra died on December 6, about 360, after a life of service to the poor, imprisonment for his faith, and “as a miracle worker, as a preacher of the word of God, spokesman of the Father.”
Tonight will be my annual playing of Benjamin Britten’s cantata, St. Nicholas, with text by Eric Crozier (1948). This portion was of particular interest.
Our eyes are blinded by the holiness you bear.
The bishop’s robe, the mitre and the cross of gold
Obscure the simple man within the saint.
Strip off your glory, Nicholas, and speak!
Across the tremendous bridge of sixteen-hundred years
I come to stand in worship with you
As I stood among my faithful congregation long ago.
All who knelt beside me then are gone.
Their name is dust, their tombs are grass and clay,
Yet still their shining seed of faith survives
In you!
It weathers time, it springs again
In you!
With you it stands like forest oak
Or withers with the grasses underfoot.
Preserve the living faith for which your ancestors fought!
For faith was won by centuries of sacrifice
And many martyrs died
That you might worship God.
Help us, Lord! to find the hidden road
That leads from love to greater Love, from faith
To greater Faith.
Strengthen us, O Lord!
Screw up our strength to serve thee with simplicity.
The Saint calls us to serve. We are working to provide emergency shelter beds for the homeless this winter, as well as working to build the much needed low income housing which is so desperately needed. Every Sunday night the Washington area folks take food out again to the homeless. Every Wednesday evening and Thursday morning we feed the homeless in the Catonsville area. Many people of God are busy trying to assist those out there in need. Nicholas is already be there asking what took us so long.
Yours & His,
DED
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