The first of Lynch's works to be performed by Chicago Master Singers in 2006, this piece is challenging to sing but rewarding for singers and audience alike. The exquisite text by former Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur deserves to be better known.

Text: Our copyright agreement with Wilbur's publisher does not permit us to list the text in its entirety, but here is the first stanza:

A stable lamp is lighted,
Whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
And straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven,
A stall become a shrine.

Stanza 2 previews the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, stanza 3 the crucifixion, and stanza 4 returns to Christmas night. The biblical reference is to Luke 19:40: "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."