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Merry Christmas! I can say that today through January 6, 2022.
Even though the Christmas merch is 50% off and Valentines candy has elbowed its way in to stores, for the faithful, Christmas is only beginning.
And while the 24/7 Christmas carol radio stations have reverted back to their original programing, the liturgical calendar shows that this season is the best time to listen to these wonderful songs of joy, hope and love.
As Jim McDermott writes in America:
“Season” is a funny word. From a secular point of view, this is just a way we demarcate a period of time.
But for us Christians the term is more akin to the idea of a journey, or a story that we are moving through.
Rather than the ending of Advent, the birth of Jesus is the beginning of something exciting and new.
And Christmastide is the time in which we watch that story unfold and let it affect us.
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/12/23/christmas-carols-when-listen-242115
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I hope you enjoyed the Advent Carol playlist that I put together and shared here.
To celebrate Christmastide, I’m creating a parallel one for this season. You can find it here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2UQKETdmGdJBW4uKaDFLKv?si=31119c0581da434a
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At both Christmas Eve mass and today’s mass celebrating the Holy Family, we sang this uplifting song:
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I hope you recognize some of these less familiar, faith-filled songs. And I hope you are surprised and inspired by one or more carols on the playlist (to which I’m going to keep adding)
I want to feature this duo – Salt of the Sound – as I find their music engaging and full of mystery too.
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I really like this series of music, scripture and images that they posted recently on their YouTube channel. These could be a great centerpiece for visual, contemplative prayer.
May you find much joy and many blessings during this holy Christmastide.
It is fleeting and before you know it, these figures will be moved from the piano on they were set today up to the nativity scene on the altar at my church:
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2Long ago, in the time before all days, before the creation of all things, the one who is known as the Word was there face to face with the Great Spirit.
This Word fully represents Creator and shows us who he is and what he is like.
He has always been there from the beginning, for the Word and Creator are one and the same.
3Through the Word all things came into being, and not one thing exists that he did not create…
14Creator’s Word became a flesh-and-blood human being and pitched his sacred tent among us, living as one of us.
M. Wildman, Terry. First Nations Version (p. 164). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
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