PHOTO MEDITATION

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Behold, I make all things NEW​
By Joseph R. Veneroso, M.M.

When night seemed longest and darkness
Spread over the land covering
The peoples with the shadow of death
While mourning draped its sad lament
Across hearts, minds and dreams
Of a better day all but abandoned
Then, O then, see! A distant morning star
Set the Earth ablaze with an unwavering
Hope, and the hope’s name was Mary.

How can this be since but newly betrothed
In all innocent purity she asks Gabriel
For an answer to a maddening mystery:
Why me? Why now? Why here?
Of old, prophets and sacred seers peered into
An indifferent universe with open hands or
Clenched fists demanding Creation
Justify its highly improbable existence.

Behold! The handmaid of the Lord
And with this fiat fresh from virgin lips sprung
Like a verdant sprout from Jesse’s stump
Luke’s lineage and Matthew’s genealogy
From Adam or Abraham to Joseph
Husband of Mary, from whom Jesus
Messiah and Savior complete with
Umbilical cord connected to all
humanity Was born.

O good Christian! Light each candle
With care and prayer as you wait
In holy expectation, knowing full well
Yet pretending otherwise that this time
This place, this Christmas, this Child
Will fulfill the age-old promise thus
Conquering death by living,
Sin by dying, hate by forgiving,
In human weakness divine strength
To take on and transform a weary world and
Behold at length and at last in love
Make all things new.