Daily Nourishment for December 25, 2024: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 60 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
Merry Christmas. Some of this week’s invitations will each respond to a Christmas carol or hymn, beginning, today, with “What Child Is This?” If you wish, you can read the words here. - Lauren
Pause.
A key image in “What Child Is This?” is the “Child….On Mary's lap…sleeping”
For two, three, four minutes gaze at this image of Jesus sleeping on Mary’s lap — Virginie Demont-Breton’s Alma mater which is also included below. Let your breath slow as you gaze. If your attention wanders, bring it back to the gold halo.
Prompt.
Listen to this recording of “What Child Is This?”
If, as you listen, you feel moved to write or sketch in response to the sound, do so. If inclined, notice how your body feels while listening.
Then, listen to this second recording. Again, if, as you listen, you feel moved to write or sketch in response to the sound, do so. If inclined, notice how your body feels while listening.
Practice.
Jot down three topics you are currently writing about, or might like to write about; three stories you are in the middle of trying to tell on the page, or that you’d like to tell on the page. Stop reading ‘til you’ve done that.
Now, pick one item from your list. If you’re in a prose mood, write a paragraph that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the first recording of “What Child Is This?” If you’re in a poetry mood, write a poem that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the first recording of “What Child Is This?” Stop reading ‘til you’ve done that.
Now, write a paragraph or poem that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the second recording of “What Child Is This?”
What do you notice about the two versions? What’s different? What’s at stake in the difference? Which felt more pleasurable to write? Which felt harder? Why?
Want More?
If you were to wake me in the middle of the night and ask me about artistic depictions of Jesus that image Jesus on Mary’s lap, I would not think of the nativity; I would think of a pieta. If you wish sit with Demont-Breton’s image above, and then sit with Michelangelo’s Pietà, and then perhaps return to Demont-Breton.
Consider exploring in writing what it means for the two images to hold one another. Consider what images in your own life and writing hold both birth and death.
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Lauren Winner. Lauren Winner is a writer, professor, Episcopal Priest, & spiritual director.
Read Lauren’s full bio here.
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