On Christmas Eve.

As usual, my 'official' Christmas post will appear in a few hours, after Midnight Mass. In the meantime, Christmas Eve visitors might enjoy some music. This is the English carol "In the Bleak Midwinter," with words by the nineteenth-century poet Christina Rossetti set to music in 1909 by Harold Darke; it is sung here by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, directed by Stephen Cleobury. The words are as follows:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

May the peace and blessings of this holy night be with all who read these lines. Merry Christmas! AMDG.