Dear Calvary Families,

This Christmas season, I would like to share a poem with you. Some of us are filled with delight and anticipation, and some of us may be tired, discouraged, or weary. No matter where we are, we are a community that shares joy as well as sorrow. Sharing the sorrows together is part of communal joy.

Calvary Schools’ curriculum is designed to inspire students, as well as to provide narratives that will help them through difficult times. This is a reason that we include stories from the Titanic, “The Hiding Place,” and other historical accounts. We need to engage with complex and nuanced aspects of the human condition.

Poetry is unique in verbalizing emotions that are in our hearts. Poetry is a kind of “heart language” that gives us the words to articulate what we cannot utter with our own mouths. All Calvary students study poetry at each grade level and are assigned specific poets as part of the classroom curriculum.

I have often been grateful for the skill of memorization. I have memorized scripture for most of my life, because my father did so before me. He was never without his wooden memorization box, even when camping. My last words to my father were a verse we had memorized together while hiking Minnesota’s boundary waters. It was a powerful experience and one I will never forget. I am grateful for how the scripture draws me to God, but also bonds me with others.

I have also made it a habit of memorizing poems which strike me. However, focused memory work and recitation found within a Charlotte Mason education has been a new benefit for me, because as an educator, I would memorize right along with students. All Calvary teachers memorize scripture and poetry along with their students.

When words wind their way deeply into our minds, they hold power. I sat through a fierce blizzard in 2010 and quietly quoted Robert Frost’s “Storm Fear.” I have recalled Longfellow’s “Tide Rises” when peaking a tall dune over Lake Michigan at Saugatuck Dunes and Kipling’s “If” when leadership tasks have seemed particularly challenging. When considering the ephemeral nature of human life, Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” comes to mind often.

While no Christian would argue the value of scripture memory, bear in mind that even scripture itself includes poetry. Poetry is worth memorizing as well, so that our hearts can speak.

“Christmas Bells” is a poem that may speak to all of us during this blessed Christmas season. Class 7 has the privilege of reading and/or memorizing this poem. It was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during the Civil War, after learning that his son had been wounded in battle. In this poem, Longfellow remembers what ought to be during Christmas, experiences despair at what ought not to be, and then remembers that God gives us daily reminders that He holds all things in His victorious hands. This poem starts and ends with joy.

Merry Christmas, Calvary Schools. A baby was born in the unlikeliest of places, to bring hope to the world. May bells resound powerfully for you this season.

Christmas Bells

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.