Dear NACAR Members,
"In the Bleak Mid-Winter" is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Before it was put to music, it was a simple poem written by an English poet, Christina Rossetti, sometime before 1872. I am captured by imagery and the unity I feel with her deepest desire: to give her everything to God. May our hearts always be this pure.
On behalf of the NACAR Board, I would like to wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with hope and peace.
Marci Madary
NACAR Board Chairperson
In the Bleak Mid-Winter
by Christina Rossetti
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.
Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.
Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air,
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
Words: Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894), 1872; appeared posthumously in The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, Poem #426, 1904.
Music: "Cranham," Gustav Theodore Holst, 1906
Source: "The English Hymnal," p. 44, 1916
