Into the Darkest Hour

'Poem for the week' -- "Into the Darkest Hour":

It was a time like this,

War & tumult of war,

a horror in the air.

Hungry yawned the abyss –

and yet there came the star

and the child most wonderfully there.

It was a time like this

of fear & lust for power,

license & greed and blight –

and yet the Prince of bliss

came into the darkest hour

in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this

How celebrate his birth

When all things fall apart?

Ah! Wonderful it is

with no room on the earth

the stable is our heart.

-- Madeleine L’Engle