Voices of Christmas

Perhaps one of the more difficult things about Christmas is hearing the True Voices of Christmas. Christmas is full of sounds of all kinds, coming at us from every side, so much so that the authentic Christmas voice can easily be blurred out. To hear the Voices of Christmas will take some effort on our part, but if we make the effort, what a beautiful and joy-filled sound will fill our hearts. The effort I speak of may be called - 

Praying Christmas.

We begin by bringing something we hear, i.e. texts from scripture, prayers of the Advent/Christmas liturgies, words from the hymns of Christmas etc. to a time of prayer. As we pray, we read and reread these words over again. If they are in a story, we try to create the scene in our imagination. If they are words addressed to God, we listen for the sentiment they express. But all the while, we listen to our own hearts by identifying the various feelings that emerge while we listen. To hear the Voices of Christmas, one must listen with the heart.

What This Effort Will Require:

• A time and place set aside for listening.
• The words we have chosen out of all the words around us.
• Patience to listen, not analyse, over think, and study.
• Humility to ask and ask again - all the while listening for sounds in the heart.
• Recording what you hear, returning again and again to listen.
• "Speak Lord, I am listening".

Some suggestions to add to the Christmas Voices

From second reading for Fourth Sunday of Advent. Communion Antphon, Monday December 23 Opening Prayer, morning Mass, Dec. 24 Gospel Acclamation, morning Mass, Dec. 24 Prayer after Communion, morning Mass, Dec. 24 First Preface of Christmas Prayer for Christmas Mass of Dawn Second Preface of Christmas

Through Christ we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. ****** Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door to me, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. (Rev 3) ****** Come quickly, we pray, Lord Jesus, and do not delay, that those who trust in your compassion may find solace and relief in your coming. ****** Radiant Dawn, splendour of eternal light, sun of justice: shine on those lost in the darkness of death. ****** Grant to us who find new vigor, O Lord, in these your wondrous gifts, that, as we prepare to celebrate in adoration the festivities of your Son’s Nativity, so we may possess in gladness his everlasting rewards. ****** For in the mystery of the Word made flesh a new light of your glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that, as we recognize in him God made visible, we may be caught up through him in love of things invisible. ****** Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, as we are bathed in the new radiance of your incarnate Word, the light of faith, which illumines our minds, may also shine through in our deeds. ****** …… when our frailty is assumed by your Word not only does human mortality receive unending honor but by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal.

Canadian artist William Kurelek  "A Northern Nativity" set to the composition "When Winter Comes" by Chris de Burgh.

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