Remembrance of the Seed of Light

(A Liturgy for Midwinter Eve)

In this deep night, O God,
when all life sleeps and everything is cradled in the womb of darkness.
A candle spark is set against the night
and burns, a single flame of hope
that at the last all will be saved from death
and the whole creation set ablaze with light.

This is a feast of light
The birth of life in God
A candle spark against the night,
creation set ablaze (chanted).

This seed has fallen to the earth and wrapped in flesh,
and those who open up their heart as womb
have made a place for God to be alive in us
who’ve lived in barrenness so long.
God-bearer and kindler of this hope
our faith undoes the awful slip of death
our trust makes ready an open space
for love and charity to come
to live in us in time
and in the hearts of all.

Awakened, a new born voice
cries out Good News, and heaven echoes back the cry.
For God has come to take the lead of time
and make of it a precious thing beyond our deep imaginings;
A body and a blood formed newfrom earth and sky.
From seed to marriage feast this lamp shall light the way,
Till all shall pass through death to life divine,
as infinite and never-ending.

Our birth day is a feast,
for all who come to earth in innocence
must die aware and fill the cup of life
and break in body and in blood
to feed the world as bread
and lift the living cup to dying lips.
We each must pass through gates of death
to open up a path for all to enter heaven’s realm
and know the everlasting Father and the Mother of us all
who bore us into life
and bears us back again through resurrection.

This is the turning point,
and we must move to face the light
returning to our source and home in God.
Yet our return is long
and takes us out upon a path
where we shall struggle with the night within
and turn it into blessedness.

Now at this hour we take and eat
we lift and drink in deep remembrance
of You whose way becomes for us
the secret that now stirs within.
And comes to birth within as sacrament
and spirit-blessed, new food, new light
a taste that ignites in all the longing to return. AMEN
--L. Bauman: Blessed Christmas to all!