In this markedly darkening season of year,
At the dark-boding end of a dark-begun year,
As did John in the dark of that long-ago year,
When the darkness had deepened year after year—
We testify that Light to this world has come near:
         The Light whose coming
         overcomes darkness,
         The Light whose shining
         no darkness darkens;
         The Light who made darkness
         and from darkness light,
         The Light to whom darkness
         is not dark but bright;
         The Light who with us
         amid darkness dwells,
         The Light within whom
         no darkness upwells;
         The Light through whose word
         this whole world was made,
         The Light whom this world
         knew not but in shade;
         The Light who unveils lovers of darkness
         with the verdict of light,
         The Light who undoes doers of evil
         by his decree of right;
         The Light who heals blind eyes to see
         this so-loved world in truest light,
         The Light who leads lost feet to find
         the long-sought path to tread aright;
         The Light who tells whoever believes—
         although you die yet you will live,
         The Light who tells whoever follows—
         always you have the light of life;
         The Light from whose heavenly fullness
         we receive grace upon grace,
         The Light in whose humanly fleshness
         we perceive God face to face;
         The Light who comes, God’s only Son,
         to everyone gives his light,
         The Light who is for all this world
         the way, the truth, and the life.
Now that the darkness from this world is passing,
Now that the true Light upon us is rising,
Let us in this Light now put our believing,
Let us by this Light now begin our living—
So we for this world may be like stars shining.