2024 Sun Dec 15

From the Winter Issue, 2012 of The Anglican Digest

One of the things I like most about the Christmas season is the music. It only occurred to me recently that so many of the Christmas carols came to us from Anglicans. Even our popular image of jolly old St. Nick was shaped by a professor of biblical studies at (of all places) an Episcopal seminary.

“Twas the Night Before Christmas” is a poem published anonymously in 1823 and gener­ally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, a professor of classics at Columbia and lay Professor of Hebrew and Bible at the General Theological Seminary, in New York (built on land he donated). The poem, which has been called “arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American,” is largely responsible for the con­ception of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today.

And what about the carols? The text of the popular “O little Town of Bethlehem” was written by Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal priest, long-time Rector of Trinity Church in Boston, and later Bishop of Massachusetts. He was inspired by visiting Bethlehem in 1865. At Christ­mas, 1868, he asked his organist, Lewis Redner, to write music for the poem he had written.’ Redner’s tune, titled “St. Louis,” is the one most often used.

John Mason Neale, an Anglican priest, scholar, and hymn-writer, translated many ancient hymns, including the Christmas classic “Of the Father’s love begotten.” He was also responsible for much of the translation of the Advent hymn “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” based on the “Great O Antiphons” for the week preceding Christmas. Neale’s most enduring and widely known legacy is probably his own original Christmas contributions, most notably “Good Christian men, rejoice” and his Boxing Day carol, “Good King Wenceslas.”

The Anglican priest Charles Wesley penned the classic “Hark! The herald angels sing.” The original words were reworked by his friend and fellow priest a George Whitfield into the verses familiar to us today. The “Father of English Hymnody” Isaac Watts , a nonconformist minister in the Church of England, wrote the famous carol “Joy to the world!” Anglican bishop Christopher Wordsworth penned the famous carol, “Sing, O sing, this blessed morn.”

Christina Rossetti was an English poet and a devout Anglo-Catholic. Two of her poems, “In the bleak midwinter” and “Love came down at Christmas,” became popular Christmas car­ols. Cecil Alexander, wife of a bishop in the Church of England, wrote the hymn “Once in Royal David’s city.” Nahum Tate, the son of a priest and England‘s poet laureate, wrote the hymn “While shepherds watched their flocks by night.” At the age of twenty-nine, English writer and Anglican layman William Chatterton Dix was struck with a sudden near-fatal illness and confined to bed rest for several months. While his illness result­ed in a deep depression, out of his traumatic experience, he wrote the lovely carol “What Child is this?”

What would Christmas be like without Anglicans?

— The Rev. Timothy Matkin, SSC, Commanche, Texas

Come to St. Peter’s in the late fall and early winter between 4pm and 6pm and the beauty is overwhelming. These were taken on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016.

See the pictures

The video and prayer for the Third Week of Advent, Cycle C, is based on Luke 3:10–18. The art is Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Preaching of St. John the Baptist.

Domenico Ghirlandaio’s fresco of John the Baptist preaching is one of a series he created for the Tornabuoni Chapel of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella Church. In this scene, we meet John the Baptist preaching to the crowds, standing on a rock and holding a cross staff with one hand, while instructing with his other. As he turns his attention to the people on the right of the scene, we can imagine him articulating the admonitions listed in Luke’s Gospel in response to the question, “Teacher, what should we do?” In his teaching to share goods justly and avoid extortion and excessive taxing, John is preparing the way for the Lord.

As John prepares the way by his preaching, Christ appears on the top left, heading down a path toward the crowd. Not one person notices him. At the moment, the focus is still on John’s preparatory role, on his preaching ministry that prepares the expectant hearts of the crowd for the advent of the Lord. Christ’s downcast gaze and crossed hands in contrast with John’s more active expression and hand gestures also underscore the focus of the moment.

To the left of the scene we meet a gathering of women, a feature characteristic of Ghirlandaio’s work. They too are engaged in listening to John. Two of them are pictured from the back, one standing and one seated at the foot of the rock on which John stands. The seated woman is especially evocative; her body is turned and directed toward John, even as a child at the foot of the prophet reaches out to get her attention. This detail alludes to conversion away from the pagan classical world that the child represents to the anticipation of the Gospel heralded by John. Seeing the woman’s back, the viewer is called to follow her example and to find oneself in her company in the crowd surrounding John.

In the midst of the elegant and colorful crowd, John the Baptist stands on a rock in his camelhair shirt and preaches the coming of Christ. His words call us to turn too, make way for the Lord, and let our hearts be filled with joyful expectation as he nears.

The third Sunday of Advent is known as “Gaudete Sunday.” The day takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete (“Rejoice”). Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. This is a quotation from Philippians 4:4-5, and in Latin, the first word of the antiphon is “gaudete”. We are most of the way through the season, closer to Christ’s birth and so that is the emphasis rather than coming again.

We light the rose colored candle in addition to the other 2 violet ones. Purple is a penitential color of fasting while pink (rose) is the color of joy. Long ago the Pope would honor a citizen with a pink rose (or a rose) Priests then would wear pink vestments as a reminder of this coming joy. Rose is also used during Laetare Sunday (the fourth Sunday of lent) to symbolize a similar expectation of the coming joy of Christ’s coming in Easter. The third Sunday of Advent is rose (pink) because pink symbolizes joy, the joy that Jesus is almost here. Adult Christian Ed discussed “Rejoice! What promises of God give you cause to rejoice?”

Theologian Henri Nouwen described the difference between joy and happiness. While happiness is dependent on external conditions, joy is “the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.” Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sadness. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. As Nouwen says, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”

This is break from some of the penitential readings earlier in Advent. How will you express joy this week? Consider the good things that have been given to you.

Besides the emphasis in joy, this is also “Stir up Sunday!” The collect has the words, ” Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins”. Let’s change the “our sins” to “missing the mark.” How can we hit the mark ? One way is to advantage of our opportunities.

“ . . . . AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE”

During the next few weeks you’ll be hearing it over and over, perhaps to the point of saying, “Enough already”! But you might be interested to know the origin of the

familiar “secular” holiday song; it has roots as a teaching tool to instruct young people in England in the content of the Christian faith!

From 1558 to 1829, Roman Catholics were not able to practice their faith openly in  Protestant England, so they devised ways of passing on their beliefs to their children.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is one example of how they did it. Each of the gifts mentioned represents something of religious significance:

1. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:  

The “true love ” represents God, and the “ me ” is the believer who receives the gifts.  The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ who died on a “tree” as a gift from God.

2.Two turtle doves are the Old and the New Testaments – another gift from God.  

3.The three French hens are faith, hope, and love –the three gifts of the Spirit that abide. (I Corinthians 13)  

4.The four colley* birds are the four gospels which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ. (Although most modern versions say “ calling ” birds, the proper word is “ colley ”, which is a type of blackbird common in England.)  

5. The five gold rings are the first five books of the Bible, also called the “Books of Moses” or the “Pentateuch”.  

6. The six geese-a-laying are the six days of creation. (On the seventh day, God rested.)  

7.The seven swans – a – swimming are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:8-10)  

8.The eight maids –a – milking are the beatitudes. (There appear to be Nine in Matthew 5: 3 -11, but the first eight are the ones directed at others ; the ninth refers only to Jesus’ listeners on the mountain.)  

 9. The nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5: 22 -23)  

 10. The ten lords – a- leaping are the Ten Commandments.  

 11. The eleven pipers piping are the eleven faithful disciples.  

 12. The twelve drummers drumming are the twelve major points of the Apostles’ Creed.  

So the next time you hear “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, consider how this otherwise Secular sounding song was a tool to instruct the young. Remember, it’s still Christmas for 12 days . . . until theFeast of the Epiphany!

-Father Rod Caulkins, St. James Episcopal Louisa