A Child is Born

All of this begins with the children,

conception in difficult times of

violent oppression, military might,

coercive controlling culture, corrupt

politics, co-opted religion, and of course

the ever-present misogyny.  And yet...

 

The humblest, most natural life cycle occurring

in an unknown family of revolutionary mystics

was the earth shattering, world turning,

life changing response, so threatening to

the mad powers of the day that those powers

attempted the impossible -- to destroy rising life.

 

However you wish to view the story of a

Virgin conception, one thing remains clear,

a young woman, a girl really, with her

heart earnestly, desperately seeking

the Holy, remained incorruptible,

unstained, undefiled -- because

Angelic voices proclaimed her so,

because family around her heard the

same voices and had the courage,

temerity, sensitivity and love to defy

any other conflicting, convicting voice.

 

Two women, one young, the other older,

living through times of oppression and

unimaginable violence, still endured in

so many cultures to this day, gave birth,

nurtured, protected, taught their sons,

helped by fathers who listened and heard

the same voice in their own hearts, and

so sustain life, truth, sacred path,

human dignity, human sanctity

against all odds.

 

Parenting children, nurturing babes,

guiding the young is a death defying

task in the best of times -- if ever

such times really exist. Teaching

and training the path of truth in

the heart and courage of conscience,

this is a heroic act indeed.

 

Thanks to such mothers, and to such fathers.

Thanks to their babes. The World has need

of you. Thanks to the Angels, however we

hear them in whatever form we perceive

them; they bring messages of Divine Spirit,

encouraging, wisdoming, sustaining.

 

Thanks to these times of defying the odds,

of meeting light in the depth of darkness,

of creating peace in the midst of violence,

of fighting to survive, endure, thrive, flourish. 

Today, this hour, we have such need. Pray

for such families, for women and men

whose hearts and minds remain undefiled

by the encircling, enclosing, cloying darkness,

who carry within themselves light, pass it

to their babes, the spark that becomes

flame, a conflagration of love, life, hope,

humility, courage, wholeness.

 

***

 

A child is born

The world burns

Rain droplets sparkle in sunlight.

 

D.A. Foster