For us there are no certainties, no star / blazing our journey, no decisive dream / to reassure hurt hearts or warn us when / it’s time to move. The shepherds, harassed men, / are given answers to the questions they / have never thought to ask, told where to go / and what to look for. We try out our way / unlit with angels, wondering “How far?” / Yet in the story we find who we are: / the baby is told nothing, left to grow / slowly to vision through the coloured scheme / of touch, taste, sound; by needing learns to pray, / and makes the way of the flesh, dark stratagem / by which God is and offers all we now.JENNIFER DINES “STORY” IN THE SECRET CHRISTMAS, ED. TERENCE HANDLEY MACMATH (DLT, 2013)The whole of Christ’s teaching is to be found in his last co