St Nicholas Celebration Dec. 6, 2010

Mahavatar Babaji Ecard for December 6, 2010
(Click on Card to Enlarge)

St. Nicholas

From Bhakti Marga: 6 December 2010:

Please join us for the celebration of one of the patron Saints of our chapel and one of the greatest Saints of all times! (At Swami Vishwananda's Shree Peetha Nilaya, Springen, Germany)

17h Beginning of the liturgy with the Story of St. Nicholas and then blessing with Myrrh and Procession of the Icon inside the Center followed by distribution of St Nicholas Bread.

Maha Lakshmi’s St. Nicholas Prasad

The woman, in despair,
Laid her head down on the table.
The red rose of springtime had long lost its bloom.
Snows of winter hung on the windowsill in cold
Testimony of Old Man Winter
Wrinkling his frosty brow.
Children played on sleds and toboggans
On the hill outside the woman’s window…
And some just watched.

The shoes were placed just outside the door
On December 6 for St. Nicholas to fill…
As was Germany’s tradition
Since...well...long, long ago.
Where will come the means to fill
The children’s shoes the mother worried…
In deep and sorrowful despair.

She fed her children a meager meal
Of porridge and bread and put them to bed.
All through the night she prayed for help from above
That some kind soul would
See the empty shoes and place a little
Something in her children's St. Nicholas shoes.

As dawn came the mother peeped into the room
Of her children ever so peacefully sleeping there.
Then she dried her eyes and went to the door
To bring the children's shoes inside to slip into them
All that she had…
One penny each for the candy store.

The woman opened the door
And in amazement and bewilderment
She wonderingly beheld. . .
Her children’s shoes overflowing...
With candy and toys and fruit and all good things.
Each shoe was filled to the brim
And spilling onto the floor.

The woman’s tears welled up again and she prayed:
“Dear Heavenly Father Who art in Heaven,
Hollowed be thy name…
From where your bounty came
I shall never be certain.
Oh Heavenly Father
Thank you from a mother’s heart
That we have learned from our
Beloved Guru, Swami Vishwananda…
You are bound only by love”.

-Utpalavati