On Christmas morn I wake to find
New peace in heart, and soul, and mind.
Softly I tread the stairs to see
Lights shining on the Christmas tree.
Our children rising from their beds
Find gifts beneath its branches spread.
They gather round the fiery hearth
That draws heat from the cold, dead earth
Which welcomed Christ, its Savior, dear
And greets Him still, in this house, here
Where song and laughter tell the joy
As we unwrap each book and toy
Still lit by the soul-thrilling glow
Of Midnight Mass, just hours ago
When flesh and blood, divinity,
By angels praised, fed you and me.
O come let us adore, we said
In Bethlehem, the living bread
For eye has not seen, nor ear heard
The fullness of Incarnate Word
Whose birth we celebrate this day.
Before His crèche, we kneel and pray,
“As I, O Lord, am born in Thee
Be Thou, O Lord, reborn in me.”
Scott P. Richert is publisher for OSV.
