Thread by @RobertBohan

Christmas Night by Hugh MacCawell
16th C Irish poem, with paintings of the Holy Family

Welcome to us Holy Child
Though the manger be your bed,
Still in glory of your house
Happy, happy rests your head.

(Velázquez, 1619)

Child so young & yet so old,
Child so tiny & so tall,
To a manger that’s too wide
From the skies that were too small.

Motherless through all the years,
Fatherless upon the earth,
God before the world began,
As a man you come to birth.

(della Francesca, 1470-5)

Though your father is so old
He is but one age with you,
& your mother but a child.
Older she, but younger too.

With omnipotence that spreads
To subdue the furthest spheres,
Youngest, oldest, Mercy’s child,
How can we understand your tears?

(Botticelli, 1475)

In swaddling cloth you lie
Whom all stars in heaven obey,
You who made the elements
Weep yourself, new-made of Clay.

Virgin, your mother gave you birth,
She the daughter of her son,
In the blackness of her womb
Light that knows no setting shone.

(Tiepelo, 1750s)

Maker of the world made flesh
Immortal made mortality -
The time has come for me to speak
For God, being weak, can only cry.

So silence, lips, & sense be still,
Reason admit what here is done,
For none shall ever understand
But Godhead’s self the godhead’s son.

(Bronzino, 1540)

So welcome Jesus once again!
Welcome from the Virgin’s womb,
Little face that shames the sun,
Baby God, a welcome home.

Brother, let me kiss your mouth,
Master, let me kiss your hand
Father, let me kiss your feet,
There’s no more I can demand

(Robert Campin, 1420)

Only mother of my God,
Open wide the stable door,
& let me as the ox may do
The master of the skies adore.

I’ll be his servant here below,
& watch for him by night & day,
& from the infant chieftain’s side
Turn the herdboy’s dogs away.

(Caravaggio, c1586)

I’ll wash his poor & ragged clothes,
& while I dry them in the sun,
O Mary, if you let me I
Will wrap him warmly in my own.

(Leonardo, c1499-1508)