Thursday 22 December

1 Samuel 1: 24-28, Ps. 1 Samuel 2: 1, 4-8, Luke 1: 46-56

Thanksgiving

Mary, mother of the new Samuel,
borrowing from Hannah her words of praise;
fill me with confidence in the power of God
that the poor and the lowly he will up-raise.
Let me rejoice to know my true poverty;
that all that I have his love bestows.
For only the empty receive his fullness.
The self-satisfied his true peace not knows

This astounding gift that God gives us in Christ
fills us with such joy, that all the decorations
and celebrations of the day struggle to express it.
If Christ’s birth is not the reason for our joy
they become a sham.