For The First Day Of Christmas: Sacred Music 24/7
Those Christians who follow the liturgical calendar are probably the majority in the United States. But sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Namely in December. The liturgical calendar for Christians actually begins with Advent, which begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Advent is a time of preparation and is marked by penance and increased devotion. So while everyone else is shopping, putting up decorations and partying, the church takes a pause to contemplate God's undeserved mercy and love in Jesus.
Christmas, on the other hand, is a joyous season where Christians everywhere give thanks to God for the birth of Jesus. For Lutherans such as myself, this begins on Christmas with the Festival of the Nativity of our Lord, and lasts for 12 days. (I'm sure you've heard of the 12 days of Christmas.)
In our home, we try to wait to play the sacred Christmas music until Christmas Eve. And then we let loose. Which is roughly the same time as every radio station in the country prepares to put its Christmas music into storage until next November 1 or whenever they start playing it.
So I'm rather excited by this new radio station that launched yesterday with non-stop sacred music that will be liturgically appropriate throughout the church year. You may find it at Lutheran Public Radio by clicking on that link.
And Merry Christmas!
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Jan '11
Re: For The First Day Of Christmas: Sacred Music 24/7
Funny. In the secular world, the Christmas season begins on the day after Thanksgiving, and extends until Christmas day.
In the religious world, Advent is a month long preparation, but then the actual celebration starts on Christmas, and then we celebrate for the Octave of Christmas, and then up until Epiphany.
They waste all their energy on the preparation. What's the preparation without the payoff?
Jun '10
Re: For The First Day Of Christmas: Sacred Music 24/7
The 12 Cats of Christmas
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleybaccam/the-12-cats-of-christmas
Aug '10
Re: For The First Day Of Christmas: Sacred Music 24/7
KC Mulville:
They waste all their energy on the preparation. What's the preparation without the payoff?
You could say the same thing of most modern weddings. All that preparation, and no special payoff to look forward to -- the couple's bored with it already.
Aug '10
Re: For The First Day Of Christmas: Sacred Music 24/7
Thank you so much, Mollie. And Merry Christmas!
As for liturgically appropriate -- and exhilaratingly gorgeous -- Christmas music, I waited all the way till Dec 25 to post this beautiful choral piece on the Member Feed, even though that might mean that few people would hear it.
It is Morton Lauridsen's setting of O Magnum Mysterium.
I imagine that the innocent beasts not only saw the Lord in the manger, but sniffed Him and licked Him as well. That is, after all, how animals figure out who and what you are.
_____________
PS: Am tuned in now. Listening to "But who may abide/For He is like a refiner's fire". That's the Best. Alto. Soloist. I've. Ever. Heard.
Edited on Dec 25, 2011 at 10:35pm