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[Dexu Xia]

Silent Night of the Soul

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Long before Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber created the familiar carol “Silent Night,” Angelus Silesius had written:

Lo! in the silent night a child to God is born,
And all is brought again that ere was lost or lorn.
Could but thy soul, O man, become a silent night
God would be born in thee and set all things aright.

Jesus, thank You for being born into this dark world so that we might be born again into Your life & light.

Silesius, a Polish monk, published the poem in 1657 in The Cherubic Pilgrim. During our church’s annual Christmas Eve service, the choir sang a beautiful rendition of the song titled “Could but Thy Soul Become a Silent Night.”

The twofold mystery of Christmas is that God became one of us so that we might become one with Him. Jesus suffered everything that was wrong so that we could be made right. That’s why the apostle Paul could write, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17–18).

Whether our Christmas is filled with family and friends or empty of all we long for, we know that Jesus came to be born in us.

Ah, would thy heart but be a manger for the birth,
God would once more become a child on earth.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being born into this dark world so that we might be born again into Your life and light.

God became one of us so that we might become one with Him.

心灵沉静

若有人在基督里，他就是新造的人，旧事已过，都变成新的了。-哥林多后书5章17节

早在约瑟夫·莫耳和弗兰兹·格鲁伯创作大家耳熟能详的圣诞颂歌《平安夜》之前，波兰修士安格勒斯·希莱修斯（Angelus Silesius）就写下了这首诗：

看哪！在寂静之夜，上帝爱子降生，失丧与被遗弃的人，如今皆被寻回。人哪！唯愿你的心灵，沉静如这夜，上帝方能降生于你心，使一切归正。

希莱修斯于1657年在《圣徒之旅》一书中发表了这首诗。我们教会的圣诞夜礼拜中，诗班优美地吟唱了这首名为《唯愿你灵沉静如这夜》的诗歌。

耶稣诞生的双重奥秘，乃是上帝成为我们的一员，使我们与祂合而为一。耶稣受尽一切苦难，为要使我们能因信称义。因此使徒保罗写道：“若有人在基督里，他就是新造的人，旧事已过，都变成新的了。一切都是出于上帝，祂藉着基督使我们与祂和好。”（哥林多后书5章17-18节）

无论我们的圣诞节是有亲朋好友围绕，或是一无所有。我们深知，耶稣降世是为要降生在我们心中。

啊，唯愿你心做马槽，迎接祂降生，上帝再次成为婴孩，降临在人间。

主耶稣，感谢祢降生于这黑暗的世界，
使我们能在祢的生命与光明中得以重生。

上帝成为我们的一员，使我们能与祂合而为一