Caroling through Advent - Devotion 9

 

 

Beth, Mary, Fred, Joyce, Sherilyn, and others in conversation, appoint Silent Night to be the congregation’s favourite!

 

Silent Night for me.

 Because growing up and attending Christmas Eve service it closed that service in a beautiful way and candles were always lit during the singing. Lots of positive memories on that one!!

-----Fred

 

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright…

This German carol was written by Austrian Pastor, Joseph Mohr. He wrote the words as the Napoleonic Wars were ending; 12 years of war that ruined social and political infrastructure, leaving a society in trauma. Other circumstances of the time included a catastrophically cold summer, followed by the eruption of Mount Tamboa, Indonesia, that compounded a change of climate. Crops failed in subsequent years, bringing crisis of famine and poverty. If only all was calm and bright!

*To what current issues and circumstances does Silent Night speak to?

*Where do you hope to see ‘all is calm, all is bright?’

 

Silent night holy night …  glories stream from heaven afar. Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!

My favourite Christmas Carol is "Silent Night" sung on Christmas Eve by candlelight, by everyone in their mother tongue.  That is the reason we celebrate Christmas. --- Joyce

*Why do you celebrate Christmas?

*Do your celebrations point to a Christian keeping of the holy-day or more as a secular holiday?

*Do you celebrate God’s glory? Do you sing ‘alleluia?’

 

Silent night, holy night, Son of God love’s pure light. …with the dawn of redeeming grace

My favorite Christmas carol - It would have to be some of the old hymns.  I like Silent Night, possibly because it brings back memories of church services with candles and everything being quiet and peaceful----- Sherilyn

This Christmas carol has been translated into over 300 languages. It has been arranged in styles of music from orchestral to heavy metal. UNESCO has designated Silent Night as a treasured item of intangible cultural heritage.  Hymnologists suggest that Silent Night is embraced across cultures and times because of its universal sense of hope and beauty, peace and grace, comfort and simplicity that transcends boundaries – whether language, people, culture, or faith.

 

*What truths do you find in the Christmas story and the Christmas season that transcend boundaries?

*Would Christmas be Christmas for you, if the only thing you did was sing, Silent Night?

 

For today’s prayer you are invited to hold two phrases from the carol – singing them to your inner self, your troubled mind, your hurting/yearning heart:

Sleep in heavenly peace! … Christ the Saviour is born!

Amen and amen!

 

Link to Silent Night - https://youtu.be/Q5hsy9ssSJw