Christina Rossetti
(by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
Chances are that you sang the hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter” this past Christmas. At the end of these lyrics, poet Christina Rossetti asks: “What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a Shepherd, I would bring a lamb. If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part. Yet what can I give him – Give my heart.”
When Good Friday arrived, Rossetti continued her soul-searching quest. In a poem by that same name, she wrote: “Am I a stone, and not a sheep, that I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross, to number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, and yet not weep?”
After comparing her perceived spiritual weakness to the devoutness of Jesus’ most intimate disciples, Christina begged to be smitten by Christ with free-flowing devotion - even beyond the way that water gushed from the rock that Moses smote in Numbers 20:11.
Rossetti’s biography indicates far more piety than she gave herself credit for. Possessing what’s been called “the old humility,” she turned her face upward rather than toward a vanity mirror.
Resources
https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-33-number-3/christina-rossetti-woman-all-seasons
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