Showing posts with label Charles Sydney Gibbes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Sydney Gibbes. Show all posts

Friday, December 25, 2020

Alexandra's Nativity prayer for Charles Sydney Gibbes, year 1917

Source:

https://orthodoxlife.org/prayers-and-services/christmas-prayer-empress-alexandra/

Alexandra wrote this Nativity prayer for her children's English tutor Charles Sydney Gibbes during captivity at Tobolsk at Christmas 1917 — the last Christmas she would ever see.

The prayer:

I pray
That Christ the Xmas King may stoop to bless,
And guide you day by day to holiness,
Your Friend in joy, your Comfort in distress;

I pray
That every cloud may lead you to the light,
And He may raise you up from height to height,
Himself the Day-Star of your darkest night;

I pray
That Christ, before whose Crib you bend the knee,
May fill your longing soul abundantly,
With grace to follow Him more perfectly.

1917
Tobolsk

Alexandra


Above: Alexandra.


Above: Charles Sydney Gibbes.