Para, Para, Pitter Pat Voices United 309
by Ugo Nakada, translation June Nakada Sumida
1. Chira, chira, wafting down, see it snow, see it snow;
Chira, chira, wafting down, tell me why it snows.
So the branches everywhere will a snowy blanket wear;
Warm and cosy they will stay, on a winter’s day.
Scriptures:
Job 38:22 & 30
Have you ever visited the storerooms where I keep the snow and hail?
Who is the mother of the ice and the frost which turn the waters to stone and freeze the face of the sea?
Psalm 147: 16
God spreads snow like a blanket and scatters frost like dust. Then he gives a command and the ice melts; he sends the wind and the water flows.
Meditation:
Prayer: Creator of Life, we rejoice in the miracle of winter beauty. Turner of Seasons, it is your design that the dark days of Winter shall be followed by the resurrection of Spring; as our world and our life grows wintry, may your true clarity germinate whatever will be born in us in the next season. (adapted from Celtic Devotional, Caitlin Matthews)
No Crowded Eastern Street Voices United 49
by Frieda Major, music Robert Fleming
2. No crowded eastern street, no sound of passing feet,
Far to the left and far to right the prairie snows spread fair and white;
Yet still to us is born tonight the child, the King of glory.
3. No rockhewn place of peace shared with the gentle beasts,
But sturdy farmhouse, stout and warm, with stable, shed and great red barn;
And still to us is born tonight the child, the King of glory.
Catherine Christie