'What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb.'

These are the well known words in the last verse of the carol ’In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti. This carol often forms a part of our Christmas Services in the White Eagle Lodge. As I write this we have just had our Christmas celebration in our London Lodge’s temporary home in the heart of London near Trafalgar Square. Many came to join Colum, Anna and myself as we led our Christmas Service and party. It was a poignant time in one way, as we all remembered our last Christmas Service in our home in St. Mary Abbot’s Place, but also it was joyous because we realised how true it is that our Lodge is not a building—it is a community of loving hearts, a ‘grail cup’ of spiritual light being earthed in London. 

Just after we had sung ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ (no organist, no pianist, just Anna and Colum leading all our happy singing) I gave a little spontaneous talk based on the final verse. I talked about how each one of us has a gift of the spirit to bring into our lives, our families, our communities. We are all different—shepherds care for lambs, artists create lovely pictures, musicians beautiful music, writers poems and stories that touch the heart, etc. Christmas is a time to remember and celebrate our unique gifts. The next line of the verse is, ‘If I were a wise man I would do my part’.  We are all much wiser than we think we are. True wisdom is not the same as intellectual knowledge. White Eagle encourages all his students to access the wisdom of the spirit which is within the jewel of the soul. We can do this through quiet prayer and meditation. We can do it through contemplation of the magical symbol of the Star, breathing into our everyday minds the wisdom that we have built into our souls through many, many lifetimes.

Then the final beautiful line is: ‘Yet what I can I give Him—give my heart’. The most important gift of all is the gift of love. Whatever our material circumstances, we can all give this gift to people around us. Even though we may not enjoy all the material trappings of Christmas as we know it in our world today, it is possible to put that in its place, and try to remember the gift of love which we can all give, no matter what our material circumstances. In giving love, we are led inwardly to that simple ‘stable’, or as White Eagle often says, ‘the cave of the heart’, where the light is re-born at Christmas time.

I wish you a very blessed and inspiring Christmas—a time to both give and receive the most valuable present of all—LOVE.