Christmas Eve

SHADOWS of the Christmas-tide  

That creep o'er mount and moor, 

What secret message do ye hide

For rich man and for poor? 

Adown yon cloud-lit western sky

On the sands of the desert shone the star

That led the Kings from the East afar;

And the desert sands we must cross like them

Ere our star will rest over Bethlehem. 

Where the winds weird fancies weave,
The day is hasting on to die,

Tho' it be Christmas eve!
And sorrow sighs its old, sad sigh,

And patience seems as vain
To pluck the dart from the bleeding heart

Of poverty and pain;
O shadows of the Christmas-tide,
Why have ye come again?

O shadows of the Christmas-tide!

On a midnight once of old
Your serried ranks were scattered wide

O'er Juda's storied wold;
And the tidings ye were bid to bear

To hovel and to hall,
To every soul on whomsoe'er

Your blessed shade should fall,
Told how, within a manger there

With no royal diadem,
But poor and lorn, for us was born

The Babe of Bethlehem!
O shadows of the Christmas-tide,

Your tale of love proclaim!

O shadows of the Christmas-tide,

That break on mount and moor, Tho' ye may not the morn abide

Your words shall yet endure! The blessed light ye usher in

Shall fill sad eyes with hope, And overthrow the reign of sin,

And the gates of peace reopen

Till the faltering feet of the world begin

To follow, shepherd-wise,
To that cave of old by the midnight wold,

Where the waiting Christ-child lies!
O shadows of the Christmas-tide,

When will the day-star rise?

Fr. George F. Johnson, S.J. 

Link (here) to The Apostleship of Prayer's 

Messanger of the Sacred Heart