Advent Poem

What Do You Want For Christmas?

What do you want for Christmas?

Nothing much - peace on earth and glory in the highest.

The rooting out of all that disturbs, destroys or cankers life

to let the Eternal be seen in all its beauty.

What do you want for Christmas?

The simplest, poorest things:

birth in a borrowed stable,

winter shelter from the icy blast

and escape from Herod's hate.

What do you want for Christmas?

A word of hope,

that Word made flesh,

God-with-us and a light in darkness.

Two thousand years and more are past.

And yet Christ's want, our need, remains the same.

Fr Rob Esdaile is Parish Priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Hampton Court Way, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 0LP. His latest book of poetry, An Invaded Life, is available from the parish, priced £7 (including postage and packing).