Father Armand

Here's to Father Armand,

On a snowy winter night..

It is sweet Christmas,

And he kneels with delight..

...but all is not right....

It was a cold day, It was a bad day,

And it had been this way for years,

For Father Armand was the only good soul,

In a land, lost to war-cries and tears.

For there was battle ; and death,

and all that came with it,

And poor father was all alone,

With his God, his will and his wit.

Then came a soldier, wounded in battle,

when Father was asking for grace..

for his people, for his lands,

and for the dead and their rightful place..

In came the soldier, straddling into the prayer hall..

and shouted , " Lord! Do you have a shroud of mercy at all?

For it is your children who are dead, your children who are dying..

And you are letting the city crumble to ashes in the fall ?"

Father raised him by the arm and led him to the Cross,

Upon which lay the Son of God, bound by nail - beaten by dross.

He soothed the soldier , saying it was all a big test.

"for the faith of the people ", and said it was for the best..

The city fell that night, its might defeated,

And Father began to question his belief..

For if there was a God who ever existed,

Surely, He would have come to her relief.

Shattered, Father retreated to his domus,

thinking of his inevitable death at dawn..

When he heard in some distance,

A cry of a baby fawn..

Down he went to the stables and found,

the baby fawn- awoken by a stranger..

Who happened to be a Woman,

In labor- shielding her offspring from impending danger.

He knew the enemy would never find them here..

He also knew what had to be done.

For the woman was in pain,

More pain than anyone.

And Father called out to the helpers-

the ones who tended to the soldier's wounds,

To help the groaning woman become a mother,

While he bore the stench of rot and blood from bodies on nearby grounds.

It was 2 minutes since midnight- the mother had become quiet,

When out came a helper shouting "Father! All's well!".

It was a baby boy and Father was ecstatic,

But even he was not prepared for what the maid was about to tell.

For in the dead of winter- at 12 on 25 December,

A matter of biblical mirth,

Father Armand was told that...

There had been a Virgin Birth.

htnakirs