Her Baby, Newly Breathing by Brian Wren, 1987

The following poem is found in the Chalice Hymnal, #158.
Words by Brian Wren, 1987
Music by Hal H. Hopson, 1983

I re-visit this Christmas hymn each year and ponder the words.
I've only heard it sung once.

Her Baby, Newly Breathing
Her baby, newly breathing, with wailing needful cry,
by Mary kissed and cradled, is lulled in lullaby.

Long months of hope and waiting, the thrill and fear of birth,
are crowned with exultation, and God is on the earth.

The eyes that gaze at Mary have yet to name or trace
the world of shape and color, or recognize a face;
yet Holiness Eternal is perfectly expressed in hands
that clutch unthinking, and lips that thug the breast.

The milk of life is flowing as Mary guides and feeds
her wordless Word, embodied in infant joys and needs.

Enormous, formless strivings, and yearnings deep and wide,
be cradled in communion, are fed and satisfied.

How mother like the Wisdom that carried and gave birth
to all things, seen and unseen, and nurtured infant earth:
unstinting, unprotected, prepaed for nail and thorn,
constricted into maleness and of a woman born.


Nativity purchased in Snyder, Texas, after Christmas 1998.