Annunciation & Nativity

2. Annunciation 

Salvation to all that will is nigh; 

That All, which always is all everywhere, 

Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear, 

Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die, 

Lo! faithful Virgin, yields Himself to lie 

In prison, in thy womb ; and though He there 

Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He'll wear, 

Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try. 

Ere by the spheres time was created thou 

Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother; 

Whom thou conceivest, conceived; yea, thou art now 

Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother, 

Thou hast light in dark, and shutt'st in little room 

Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb. 

3. Nativity

Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb, 

Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.  

There he hath made himself to his intent  

Weak enough, now into our world to come.  

But O! for thee, for Him, hath th' inn no room? 

Yet lay Him in this stall, and from th' Orient,  

Stars, and wise men will travel to prevent  

The effects of Herod's jealous general doom.  

See'st thou, my soul, with thy faith's eye, how He  

Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?  

Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,  

That would have need to be pitied by thee?  

Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,  

With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.  

—John Donne, from La Corona, The Holy Sonnets