THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW YEAR

THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST
from The Crown of the Year: Weekly Paragraphs for the Holy Sacrament
by Austin Farrer

"WHEN a calendar year comes to an end, we feel cheated. Nothing in fact has been ended, nothing rounded off and finished. The year is not a piece of work completed and done; we cannot hold on to, or possess, what it has accomplished. We have leartn many things, but all our learning seems still to lie before us. We have enjoyed many things, but our happiness has het to be earned. We have served God—how little—and we have still to find out what the service of God truly is, and who the God truly is whom we serve. Yet in every moment while time thus bafflingly slips from us, we are in the hands of him who is eternal and changes not. Our Christ, the Christ we offer up here, the Christ on whom we feed here, the Christ whose body we are here, is eternal God as well as changeable man. Our grasp of eternity is small, but eternity grasps, fills and uses us. For we are the body of an eternal Christ."

Austin Farrer

The Splendour of God's truth

The splendour of God's truth we see
Like sunlight through the clouds.
We recognise the good and right
Yet wrong enthralls the crowds.
O Light of Christ, shine in our day.
Your truth we seek and crave.
And in your life may ours be hid
Who follow in your Way.

Come swiftly, Lord. Good Shepherd, come.
Your Church in pain revolves.
See, shepherds have betrayed the lambs
And shown themselves as wolves.
O heal your brokenhearted ones
Bereft and killed by shame.
Come claim your flock. Defend your own
Who love your voice and Name.

Beneath the Cross and at the Tomb
And in the Upper Room.
You pour upon us grace and power
To triumph over doom.
Your Mother we take as our own.
On Peter's Rock we stand.
Oh feed and lead us by your Life
Into your promised land!

---

Words: Copyright © 2002, 2004 by Vincent Uher. All rights reserved.
Tune: Laramie
Meter: CMD

Lo, How She Brings Life With Her

Lo, how she brings Life with her
Concealed beneath her heart,
Eve’s daughter, brave and chosen,
God’s partner to his art.
Her will knit with divine will
Desires his Word be done.
For God she weaves within her
The body of their Son.

Elisabeth her cousin
A child will bring to birth –
God’s answer to her longing,
A prophet for the Earth.
“Peace be with you,” said Mary.
Her cousin’s babe did dance
The merry steps of best man:
The Bridegroom’s here, at last.

Elisabeth cried out then,
“The child within me leapt!
When he heard your sweet greeting,
With joy my baby stepped.”
She spoke full of the Spirit,
With insight from the Lord,
“How is it you come to me
The Mother of my Lord?”

Great Mary, Anna’s child,
A daughter born to Israel,
A virgin undefiled,
She sang out as a woman
Brought up on Hannah’s song,
“O praise, my soul, God’s greatness.
Rejoice, our Lord is strong.”

All ages call her blessed
Just as she once foretold.
Blest is she amongst women,
Her Child blest from of old.
Blest is she who believes God
Who carries God’s true Word.
Her Son both God and human
Fulfils great Gabriel’s word.

Our Saviour, God of mercy,
Remembers Abraham’s fold.
Praise God who casts down tyrants.
Rejoice! Our God is bold.
So sing we with blest Mary
To magnify the Lord
Who raised up his handmaiden.
Oh, holy is the Lord!


Copyright © 2006 by Vincent Uher
This may be sung to the tune Far Off Lands
or to the tune Wie lieblich ist der Maien

Especially for the liturgical observances of the Visitation, Nativity of St. John Baptist, Advent III, Advent IV and for Masses for the Respecting of Life.