Some people may have already taken down the tree, packed away the ornaments, and switched off the holiday music for another year. However, Christmas, the liturgical season, is still in full swing. In the Church, Christmas only begins on the 25th of December, coming to an end 12 days later, on the feast of the Epiphany.

As you look forward to the end of the Christmas season, the end of the year, the end of the decade, I invite you to imagine what will come next. What is going to be different, what are you going to do because of the birth of this little child that we remember and celebrate?

To that end, I offer for your meditation a well-known poem by African-American theologian and civil-rights activist, Howard Thurman, The Work of Christmas:

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart.

 May you have a blessed Christmas and New Year.

 

CG+