Merry Christmas, First Presbyterian Church!  

Perhaps, at some point during your celebration of this sacred day, you will find some time to read the following poem, written by the Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill in 1920. It’s called “Two Carols” and contains much theological beauty and depth. Here it is:
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         Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra.1

Very still was all the land,
Very secret was the hour; 
Darkness as a guard did stand
When the Rose brought forth her flower —
Rosa sine spina.2 

Long the road and hard the pain,
Chill and lowly was the shed: 
See, upon the straw she's lain —
Straw, to make her childing-bed! 
Virgo et regina.3 

Cold the welcome, sharp the smart;
Godhead treads the bitter way. 
Only in the lowly heart
Is her Babe brought forth today — 
Genetrix divina.4 

        Omnis creatura ingemiscit, et parturit usque adhuc.5

Silence and darkness! Land and sea
Await the ending of their pain. 
Qui est in coelis6 now shall be
One with the world he made again.
Dominus tecum!7
So the angels say, 
So may it be alway!

Poor Earth, that hast in exile long
Borne alien gods, thy travail cease! 
Lift up, lift up, the mother's song: 
Rex natus est,8 his name is Peace.
Dominus tecum!
So the angels say, 
So may it be alway!

Adveniat regnum!9In the heart
Love's childing-bed is made tonight. 
There is he born that heals thy smart, 
Emmanuel, the Light of Light!
Dominus tecum!
So the angels say, 
So may it be alway!
 

1 Flowers have appeared in our land.
2 A rose without a thorn.
3 Virgin and queen.
4 Divine mother.
5 Every creature groans and travails in labor until now.
6 Who is in heaven
7 The Lord be with you!
8 A king is born,
9 May the kingdom come!
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Peace be with you,
Pastor Aaron