Words, Music, and Arrangement: Gino Torres 
Featuring: Toto Sorioso 

The House of Christmas 
GK Chesterton (1874–1936) 

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.

The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.

Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;

But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than
Eden And a taller town than Rome.

To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

Like Joseph and Mary who sought a place, while traveling in Bethlehem, for Mary to bear her child, our Savior, but were refused at an inn and led to a manger instead, we all walk through this world in constant search of a place where love, peace, and hope live— refuge, a home that welcomes all, blind to color, class, and creed. But beyond being likened to travelers, we also need to look deeper, reform the innkeeper in us, and transform and open our hearts to find that this home there resides. The Christmas season especially reminds us that when we open our hearts, we open the doors of our home to all humankind who seek love, peace, and hope, all of which Mary, too, carried in her womb, and all of which we, whether as travelers or innkeepers, eventually, too, will discover (what?) lies deep within us.