Tabb Centenary Year LXIX

Five poems by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Speculum Amoris

My God the Baby is
   That rests upon my knee.
Into those eyes of His
   I gaze mine own to see.
And He looks up to meet in mine
Reflected all the love Divine.

A Maid my mother is,
   And I a sireless Son.
No other deed like this
   Has Love eternal done—
To make her motherhood for Me
The mirror of Divinity.

1910 (p. 191, Religion: Christ)

The Incarnation

Save through the flesh Thou wouldst not come to me—
The flesh, wherein Thy strength my weakness found
A weight to bow Thy Godhead to the ground,
And lift to heaven a lost humanity.

1894 (p. 339, Quatrains: Religion)

The Breeze at Bethlehem

   I that have lashed the sea
And from the forest torn the rooted tree,
   Come now, my passion spent,
   A lowly penitent,
      Sweet Child, to Thee.

   Alike Thy sovereign will
The strong and weak, O slumbering Babe, fulfil.
   As I before Thee now
   Shall waves submissive bow,
      And storms be still.

1910 (p. 199, Religion: Christmas)

The Christmas Babe

So small that lesser lowliness
Must bow to worship or caress;
So great that heaven itself to know
Love’s majesty must look below.

January 1894 (p. 343, Quatrains: Religion)

At the Manger

When first her Christmas watch to keep
Came down the silent angel, Sleep,
   With snowy sandals shod,
Beholding what His mother’s hands
Had wrought, with softer swaddling-bands
   She swathed the Son of God.

Then skilled in mysteries of night,
With tender visions of delight
   She wreathed His resting place,
Till wakened by a warmer glow
Than heaven itself had yet to show,
   He saw His mother’s face.

December 1907 (p. 196, Religion: Christmas)

[Today is Christmas, on which day Christians celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Speculum Amoris”: Latin, mirror of love; the first stanza is spoken by the Blessed Virgin Mary, the second by her Divine Son. “The Incarnation”: see Catholic Encyclopedia. “The Breeze at Bethlehem”: the second stanza alludes to Mark 4:35-41.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 12/25/09 07:12:23 AM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.