The Magi honored the Christ child with three gifts.
In honor of the magi, I read three Christmas tales each December. My Christmas reads are also part of A Literary Christmas – sponsored by In the Bookcase.
A short story about Papa Panov, a village shoemaker somewhere in Imperial Russia. He seems a
simple man, in the best sense of the phrase, of modest means. He is a widower, and whatever children there were have long since left to make their own way. Papa Panov can still smile though at the sights and sounds of Christmas in his village. On Christmas Eve, he reads of the birth of Christ, and wishes he had been in Bethlehem to offer hospitality to Mary, Joseph, and the Son of God. He sleeps and dreams that Christ tells him he will visit Papa Panov on Christmas day.
Papa Panov awakes and awaits expectantly, but with a bit of doubt. It was only a dream after all. The only visitors are poor, and cold, and hungry. Papa Panov shares what he can to comfort the small stream of visitors. At days end as he prepares to retire for the night, he peacefully accepts…
it had been just a dream after all. Jesus had not come.
But there are a few lines left. They are not difficult to guess, but I’ll offer a hint from the Gospel of Matthew:
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40
A short story about a group of five young women – girls by most accounts – who, away from family in
a boarding house, share their Christmas treasures with one another in only slightly self-indulgent jollity. They remember the spinster, Miss Allen, whom they don’t really like, and who doesn’t really like them. They remember the postman, almost comical under his burden of gifts, and they remember that for Miss Allen there were no packages, no cards, no notice.
Jean, the unofficial leader of the group, has an inspiration, and the story turns foolishly maudlin, absurdly predictable, and blessedly beautiful!
The girls realize the “old truth, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. But this is so obvious, I would stand by my description of foolish and absurd, except the girls take the old truth and pledge to make it an “all-the-year-round inspiration.”
An ode written by John Milton in 1629, one of his earliest poems, written when he was just 21, at
some time after Christmas. It contains a four-stanza proem (preamble – new word for me), and the main hymn of 27, 8-line stanzas. The hymn has four major themes:
Stanzas 1-12 – nature’s reaction to the advent of Christ.
I (excerpt)
It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe,
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
Stanzas: 13-18 anticipates Christ’s redemption of humanity.
XVI (excerpt)
The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorifie:
Stanzas 19-26 depicting Christ’s expulsion or silencing of pagan dieties.
XIX (in entirety)
The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell.
The final stanza, 27 – the nativity scene itself.
XXVII (excerpt)
But see the Virgin blest,
Hath laid her Babe to rest.
Time is our tedious Song should here have ending,
It was beautiful, clearly a work of passion and devotion. I’ve not read Milton before, and this was an amazing introduction. I may take on Paradise Lost in the New Year.
The Early Modern English is a bit challenging. It was much more accessible with scholarly introduction and commentary, such as: The John Milton Reading Room
Merry Christmas
~ The Wanderer
May you be blessed with
the spirit of the season, which is Peace,
the gladness of the season, which is Hope,
and the heart of the season, which is Love
.
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