12 Days of Christmas: Prayers and Lessons

The 12 days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day and end at the Epiphany. Along the way, we have many feasts and days of remembrance for us to participate in...

Follow the links below:

25 The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
26 Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr
27 Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
28 The Holy Innocents
29 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1170
30 Frances Joseph Gaudet, Educator and Prison Reformer, 1934
31 Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Bishop in the Niger Territories, 1891
1 The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ
2 Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah, First Indian Anglican Bishop, Dornakal, 1945
3 William Passavant, Prophetic Witness, 1894
4 Elizabeth Seton, Founder of the American Sisters of Charity, 1821
5 Amma Syncletica of Alexandria (Orthodox)*
6 The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ


The dates in bold are from the 1979 BCP Calendar (Episcopal).

Other observances from either Lesser Feasts and Fasts or Cloud of Witnesses (Episcopal).

*This Feast Day (saint) is taken from the Orthodox Calendar. She is one of the Desert Mothers.

A great idea for families:

http://www.growchristians.org/2018/12/25/the-12-days-of-christmas/#more-6953

Christmas Day Sermon

God of all hope and joy, open our hearts in welcome that your Son Jesus Christ at his coming may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen (NZ Prayer Book)

Bethlehem (House of Bread) – 1999 (on pilgrimage)

·         Manger Square

·         Church of the Nativity

·         Meeting in the Back Alley

from the Hymnal #79:

O little town of Bethlehem how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight

Philip Brooks (Episcopal Bishop of MA) wrote this in 1868, 3 years after visiting the Holy Land, he gave it to his organist who set it to music for the Sunday School. It has become one of our beloved Christmas hymns.  But the village he visited was a much different place than the bustling commercial hub where Jesus was born.

Nicholas Blincoe tells the fascinating story of Jesus’ birthplace in his book Bethlehem: Biography of a Town.   When the future king David was born there, it was only a settlement of shepherds and herdsmen. But Bethlehem came into prominence 200 years before Jesus’ birth when the Greeks built an aqueduct from the springs near the Bethlehem hills to supply water to the city of Jerusalem, seven miles away. Bethlehem instantly became a center of commerce as a well a strategic military location.

Blincoe writes that Mary and Joseph might have spent the night in the open garden in the center of Bethlehem. “Mary and Joseph would see tough-looking traders strike deals, count profit, write contracts, and exchange their sheep and wool for fruit or olive oil. To visitors from the Galilee, this might make Bethlehem a wild and strange kind of town. Nevertheless, it was clear that Bethlehem was far less free than the Galilee. There were soldiers everywhere. [Rome’s] Tenth Legion was charged not only with protecting the many miles of aqueducts, but also with policing the desert, the empire’s international border, as well as the profitable trade in livestock and Dead Sea chemicals . . . Bethlehem was supposed to be part of the Jewish ancestral homeland. Yet, as the scriptures tell us, it was not a place where one was likely to find many Jewish people.”

It was here, Matthew and Luke write, in this busy, bustling, place that God entered human history. Every day, Jesus is born in the Bethlehems of our lives: lives overwhelmed by responsibilities and expectations. Sometimes Christ comes to us in poverty that we might know the riches of God; he comes in simplicity that we might realize the presence of God in all things; he comes quietly so that we might hear the music of God amid the clamor of our noisy world.

This understanding that nothing will hold back Christmas, for the dark night will wake, the glory will break and Christmas will come once more even in misery and sin. It reminds me of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow…
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The Carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;
‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
‘God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!’

Christmas will always break forth even in the bleakest of times and God will prevail. And when Christ does come into our midst, it is up to us to receive him.  This Christmas, may the wellspring that is Christ bring new hope and joy into our Bethlehem wildernesses; may the light that is Christ illuminate the darkness of our mangers with wisdom and peace in this season and in every season of the new year. In the words of that beloved carol: 

Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the Mother mild;
Where Charity stands watching and Faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more. Amen.

Christmas Eve Sermons

5 PM:

I am going to tell you a story about a Christmas Carol, one of the oldest from Canada, written in 1643 for the Huron (Wyandot) Native tribe living in Ontario.

It was written by a missionary trying to tell the story of Christmas to those who had not heard the story before. It was originally written in their native language and translated in 1926 into English.

(congregation can look at Hymnal #114 for the words)

Book: The Huron Carol

Let us celebrate with Christians all over this world.

The holy child of earth and heaven Is born today for you and me.

Come kneel before the radiant Boy, Who brings you beauty, peace, and joy:

Jesus your king is born! Jesus is born: "In excelsis gloria!" Amen.

(tell a piece from the story of the Huron Carol (back of book))

10 pm
Let me tell you a story…

The Deer on Christmas Eve (from Star of Wonder p. 96-97)

I love that tale because it is based on the real Huron Carol. (Hymn #114)

In 1643 a Canadian priest writes a carol in his adopted Native Huron language, using an older 16th c. French tune to help tell the story of Christmas. The saintly Father Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary living with the Native Canadian Huron peoples, decided to write them a Christmas song using their language. He had lived among them for 22 years and was respectful of their culture and language. It is the oldest Canadian Christmas carol.

He would die with many of them in 1649 during a raid by a nearby Iroquois tribe.

One of the missionaries wrote: "The Indians have a particular devotion for the night that was enlightened by the birth of the Son of God. They built a small chapel of cedar and fir branches in honor of the manger of the Infant Jesus."

The Huron Carol deserves to be remembered and enjoyed because it speaks a deep truth about Christmas – that even in the darkest winter, there is the promise of light and new birth – for tonight Jesus is born for us and for the world.

We have the words from the original Huron (and French). And I want to read to you another translation into English…

Let Christians take heart today
The devil's rule is done;
Let no one heed the devil more,
For Jesus Christ is come
But hear ye all what angels sing:
How Mary Maid bare Jesus King.

Jesus is born. Jesous ahatonhia.

Three chieftains saw before Noel
A star as bright as day,
"So fair a sign," the chieftains said,
"Shall lead us where it may."
For Jesu told the chieftains three:
"The star will bring you here to me."

Jesus is born. Jesous ahatonhia.

The chieftains gave him gold and all,
When Jesu they did see;
And told Him tales of near and far
With joy and courtesie,
Now, come ye all, sing Jesukin,
Who hears the prayers of holy ones

Jesus is born. Jesous ahatonhia.

(and from the French…)

So let us all now come to Him
and offer Him our prayer,
Adore Him too and He in turn
His wealth with us will share.
For Saints us all He wants to be,
so hear His word that sets us free,

Jesus indeed is born, Jesus is born, Jesous ahatonhia.

(translations by H. Kierans, S.J. & D. Hegarty, S.J.)

Tonight, let us celebrate with Christians all over this world.
The holy child of earth and heaven Is born today for you and me.
Come kneel before the radiant Boy, Who brings you beauty, peace, and joy:
Jesus your king is born! Jesus is born: "In excelsis gloria!" Amen.

The Huron Carol

Two links to two different versions on You Tube:

and

Sermon: December 23 (Advent 4)

This sermon was given at the 8 AM service...

Loving God, you chose Mary, full of grace, to be the mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now fill us with your grace, that with her, we may understand your ways, rejoice in your salvation, and embrace your will; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Worship@North)

My soul magnifies the Lord…

I came to know & love the Magnificat through a song we sang at the diocesan camp I grew up at and later served as counselor. It was written by a priest in MI as a paraphrase of Mary’s famous song.

The Magnificat or the Song of Mary is a powerful song. If we consider that Mary was a young teenager when she made this pronouncement, we get a real glimpse into a faithful and revolutionary song, of a person inspired by the Holy Spirit. There are times we don’t even recognize how powerful this song is…

John Dear in his book, Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace, tells us that in the mid 1970s the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (the Mothers of the Disappeared) whose children "disappeared" under the Argentina military dictatorship used the Magnificat to call for nonviolent resistance to that military rule. The Magnificat was then banned in Argentina but the mothers still sang her song…

But why? Think of the words from the Magnificat…

He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.

This is talking about our God at work in the world, dispensing God’s justice, lifting up the lowly, the poor, the humble and hungry. Those in power, the proud, the rich, they will be brought down…

No wonder a dictatorship that can only exist by fear does not want such resistance emboldened by God’s words and justice…

Those words can inspire us and lead us to help those in need, and of course, frighten those in power.

Jonathan Myrick Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian in 1965 in Cambridge, MA. In March 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, asked students and others to join him in Selma, Alabama for a march to the state capital in support for his civil rights program.

When news of the request reached the campus, students began to debate and consider going. At Evening Prayer at the chapel, Jon Daniels decided that he ought to go. Later he wrote:

“My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.’ I had come to Evening Prayer as usual that evening, and as usual I was singing the Magnificat with the special love and reverence I have always felt for Mary's glad song. "He hath showed strength with his arm." As the lovely hymn of the God-bearer continued, I found myself peculiarly alert, suddenly straining toward the decisive, luminous, Spirit-filled "moment" that would, in retrospect, remind me of others--particularly one at Easter three years ago. Then it came. "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things." I knew then that I must go to Selma. The Virgin's song was to grow more and more dear in the weeks ahead.”

Jonathan Myrick Daniels and others would go to Selma and he continued working there for several months helping with the civil rights movement and voter registration. On August 20, 1965 he was shot and killed by a deputy sheriff in Hayneville, Alabama. His last act was to thrust Ruby Sales, a young African American woman, out of the path of the gunfire that took his life and seriously wounded a priest.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry and career for civil rights was performed by Jonathan Daniels." And Jonathan Daniels was led to the South by the Magnificat…

And so we end our Advent with Mary, to whom the angel Gabriel came and said, “Greetings favored one. The Lord is with you.” To whom Elizabeth her cousin said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

To which Mary sings, "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God…"

It is Mary’s, Yes to God, that allows God’s reality to break into the world that Christmas long ago. This is not some starry eyed teenager but one who by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit humbled herself to accept the gift of the Christ Child and has given us a song. A song about the power tables being turned, about the lowly being lifted up, which she herself had experienced. Who sings that song today? The Magnificat has been a part of the prayer life of the Christian Church. And like the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina and Jonathan Myrick Daniels, we will find in those words God calling to us and our song joining with Mary’s. And there we will find our Christmas.

In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Who among us will celebrate Christmas right? Those who finally lay down all their power, honor, and prestige, all their vanity, pride, and self-will at the manger, those who stand by the lowly and let God alone be exalted, those who see in the child in the manger the glory of God precisely in this lowliness. Those who say, along with Mary, “The Lord has regarded my low estate. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” May we join with all those who are singing her song today. Amen.

The Christmas Story, circa 2018

An adaptation of the gospel of Jesus according to Luke, chapter 2 by todd atkins-whitley

In those days, a decree went out from the Attorney General that domestic violence and gang violence would no longer be considered grounds for asylum and a proclamation went out from the President that denied asylum to migrants seeking refuge through alternate means of entry. These were not the first restrictions on migration issued by various men who served as president of the United States.

Multitudes fled their own towns of origin to seek asylum. José also went from the town of San Salvador in El Salvador to the port of entry at the southernmost border called Tijuana because gangs had threatened to kill his family if he did not pay them. He went to seek asylum with María, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.

While they were there, the border crossing was closed and border patrol agents fired tear gas canisters at them, throwing María into premature labor. And she gave birth to her firstborn son in a tent in a make-shift camp inside an abandoned municipal sports complex and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a crate, because there was simply no place for them to go in either country.

In that region there were women working in the maquiladoras, making electronics by day and night for foreign-owned companies seeking cheap labor and lax environmental laws. Then an angel of God stood before them, and the glory of the God shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of Tijuana a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a crate.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “¡Gloria a Dios en el cielo más alto, y en la tierra paz entre los que él favorece!”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the maquiladora workers said to one another, “Let us go now to the Benito Juarez Sports Complex and see this thing that has taken place, which God has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found María and José, and the child lying in the crate. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the maquiladora workers told them.

But María treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

The maquiladora workers returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

(this interpretation will not be for everyone but I think it is important for us to think about the implications of a long ago event for us today... "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born And not within thyself, Thy soul will be forlorn." (Angelus Silesius))

Love Came Down at Christmas (Presiding Bishop Christmas Message 2018)

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
Christmas Message 2018
In the Third Chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus says at one point, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

For years, I’ve often thought that that passage only referred to Jesus giving his life as a sacrifice on the cross. And to be sure, that is part of what it means. But some years ago I was reading a commentary by Raymond Brown, on the Gospel of John, and Professor Brown said that that passage not only speaks of Jesus willingly giving his life on the cross, but it actually speaks of Christmas, of God giving his very self, his very son to the world, not for anything God could get out of it, but for the good and the welfare and the well-being of the world. Of us.

Someone once said, in a Christmas poem, “Love came down at Christmas.” That’s what love is. To give, and not to count the cost. To give, not for what one can get, but for what the other can receive. That’s what love is. God so loved the world, that he gave.

I realized recently how powerful that passage really is, when I saw an old poster from 1938. A poster produced by the Episcopal Church at that time, to encourage Episcopalians and other Christians, and other people of faith and good will, to do whatever they could to help Jewish refugees fleeing tyranny in Europe. To help people from all over Europe seeking refuge in America, this land of freedom. The poster depicts Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. They’re fleeing persecution in Palestine, as Matthew’s Gospel says. And the poster depicting Mary, Joseph, and Jesus says in the tag line, “In the name of these refugees, help all refugees.”

God so loved the world, that he gave, even to the point of risking his own son. And in the name of those refugees, in the name of that Jesus, help all refugees, all people who suffer, anyone who’s alone, everyone who is in need. That’s what love does.

Love came down at Christmas, because God so loved the world, that he gave.

In those days, a decree went out from the Emperor Augustus, that all the world should be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem because he was a descendent from the House of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged, and who was expecting a child. While they were there, she gave birth to her first-born son, and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Meanwhile, in that region, there were shepherds, living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then the angel of the Lord stood above them. And the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were terrified. The angel said unto them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people. To you is born this day, in the City of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign. You will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly, there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to all people on earth.”

Have a blessed Christmas. Have a merry Christmas. Have a joyful Christmas.

God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church