O Christ, the Light of every year
O Christ, the Light of every year,
Whose birth the angels sing,
Shine on the path we leave behind,
And bless the days we bring.
Sylvester, calm in storm‑tossed days,
Kept watch with shepherd’s care,
So grant us steadfast hearts, O Christ,
To serve, endure, and bear.
In Bethlehem your glory dawns,
Still bright through passing days;
O Christ, renew our hope and joy,
And teach our hearts your praise.
So guide us, Lord, when midnight comes,
And dawn begins to rise;
Be Alpha at our journey’s start,
And Omega, our prize.
Hymn Information
First Line: O Christ, the Light ever every year
Text: Michael McFarland Campbell
Metre: CM
Tune: St Peter
Theme: St Sylvester, New Year’s Eve, Christmas
Reflection
St Sylvester’s Day arrives quietly, tucked into the glow of the Christmas Octave and the soft threshold between one year and the next. It’s a day that honours a pastor who steadied the Church through turbulence not with spectacle, but with patient courage and the long faithfulness of showing up.
In this season when light lingers and time feels both tender and strange, we’re invited to notice the same Christ‑light that held Sylvester steady — the light that dawns in Bethlehem and keeps dawning still.
Today’s hymn continues this series of new texts for the days of Christmastide, offering words for those who stand at the year’s end with gratitude, weariness, hope, or simply the desire to be held. May it meet you where you are, and may its cadence carry you gently into the turning of the year.
Copyright
© Michael McFarland Campbell. 2025.
Permission granted for local church or parish use with attribution. Not for commercial reproduction.
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