30th December
Day 6 of the Octave of Christmas

Christ the Lord is born today;
today, the Saviour has appeared.
Earth echoes songs of angel choirs,
archangels’ joyful praise.
Today on earth his friends exult.
Glory to God in the highest, alleluia

12 Days of Christmas Carol:

On the sixth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me six Geese A-laying: The six days of creation

Poem: George Herbert – “Christmas (II)”

The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul’s a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy word: the streams, Thy grace
Enriching all the place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Outsing the daylight hours.
Then will we chide the sun for letting night
Take up his place and right:
We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
Himself the candle hold.
I will go searching, till I find a sun
Shall stay, till we have done;
A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly,
As frost-nipped suns look sadly.
Then will we sing, and shine all our own day,
And one another pay:
His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,
Till ev’n His beams sing, and my music shine.

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The featured image is “Nativity” by Robert Campin (1375/1379–1444), and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.