The 12 Days of Christmas

12/23/2014

At the last RCIA Group meeting of 2014, I offered the group a suggestion to reflect upon Christmas Carols/Hymns. If there is one that particularly touches you or is memorable this time of year, you should go and look up the lyrics and meditate on the words.

The 12 Days of Christmas is one traditional song. The lyrics aren't terribly religious, but the idea of counting down the 12 days from Christmas Day to Epiphany (traditionally celebrated Jan. 6), does cover the majority of the Christmas Season.

I invite you to download this free reflection on the 12 days of Christmas. (Or Click on the Image)

Also, please READ MORE below and use this Blog Post to post reflections between now and when we meet again in January.

Obviously some popular Christmas Carols, like "Frosty the Snowman", might have less spiritual insight than the type of hymns that we might sing at Mass. This past Sunday, we sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel. And I noted that the song itself was a good summary of the long handout I gave you on Salvation History--all summarized in a famous, memorable tune.

So I invite you to select or pay attention to the hymns that are sung during this Christmas Season. You can remark about them here in the comments section. Be prepared when we meet again on January 4th, to talk about the music that you have heard during our time away and what your reflections on the song have added to your spiritual journey.

Blessed Christmas!
All Good Things!

2 Comments

Jay link

12/22/2014 11:59:52 pm

http://youtu.be/YmZlYiMCvSc
This has been a favorite "Christmas Story" retelling for me. Lou Reed, who passed away in 2013, adds a certain memorable quality to things, as does the line "But it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes, but to shepherds and street people, hooker and bums" that is just unforgetable to me.

Lyrics are available here:
http://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/coatb.html

Karen M.

1/3/2015 01:44:06 am

I have always loved Christmas music, both the religious and secular selections. True, there are some secular selections that I could do without (“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” comes to mind), but I enjoy listening to just about any others.

“Away in a Manger”, in particular, remains a favorite of mine. This is probably the first Christmas song I learned at a very young age. While I have always viewed it as a child’s Christmas song, the imagery is exemplary of most nativity scenes. I remember learning what it meant to say the “cattle are lowing”. I still feel it is a perfect song for children, but as an adult, I appreciate it even more as I reflect on the story it tells.

As I have grown older, other songs have become more meaningful. If asked my favorite religious and secular Christmas songs, I would have to say “O Holy Night” and “The Christmas Song” (the Nat King Cole version is especially good), respectively. “O Holy Night” is a beautiful description of the events of the birth of Christ, and beauty of the hope that His birth brought to the world.

Even though I feel that I have been quite familiar with the lyrics of so many Christmas songs for most of my life, I reflected on them more closely this year, perhaps with a more enriched view. For example, with respect to “O Come All Ye Faithful”, I realized a commonality with the Nicene Creed. Both contain “God from (of) God”, “Light from Light”. Additionally, the line “Glory to God, Glory in the Highest” is also similarly contained in the “Gloria”. As another example, the lines in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, such as “Veiled in flesh”, “Hail the incarnate Diety”, “Light and life to all He brings”, “Born that man no more may die” also remind me of the Nicene Creed. The fact that these lyrics are parts of the Mass, not just lines in a Christmas song, make the songs even more meaningful to me.

The 12 Days of Christmas

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