1-1-10

"The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With the new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in a higher dream."

(T.S. Eliot describes redemption as a figure moving about ashes and endings in "Ash Wednesday.")

(Taken from "a Slice of Infinity" at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries)

Also from the Most Unpleasant Mr. Eliot: "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"

"The expectation of the goose or turkey
And the expected awe on its appearance,
So that the reverence and the gaiety
May not be forgotten in later experience,
In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium,
The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure,
Or in the piety of the convert
Which may be tainted with a self- conceit
Displeasing to God and disrespectful to the children
(and here I remember also with gratitude
St. Lucy,her carol, and her crown of fire):
So that before the end, the 80th Christmas
(by '80th' meaning whichever is the last)
The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy
Which shall be also a great fear, as on the occasion
When fear came upon every soul:
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming."

FYI-- the Unitarians brought the Christmas tree to New England, where the celebration of Christmas had been outlawed. "God is no respecter of persons" Needless to say.



JOY TO THE WORLD