Getting Ready For Christmas

Wow, Advent is racing to a close and Christmas is almost hear. I really don’t feel ready. Hey, I’ve bought some presents and we have the tree up and ready to decorate…plans for Christmas dinners are moving ahead, but I just don’t feel ready.  Our choir prepared well and we had a wonderful Advent/Christmas concert and are prepared for Christmas Eve Mass. We’ve participated in our Advent prayers and the Eucharist….. but I just don’t feel ready. Do you know what I mean? 

I guess I feel like I’m too much on “auto-pilot”. Auto-pilot can be good, but you don’t want to experience life on auto-pilot….especially celebrating the greatest moment in history (along with Easter). 

So, what to do? What should we do to better prepare in these last days of Advent? Okay I have a couple of thoughts.

• Our relationship with the Lord is so much greater than we can understand and experience. I guess we should never feel ready for the next moment with him. While we should  try to do our part and prepare, on our own we are never ready. God is so much greater than what we know. Do we know some things about the Lord…. absolutely; we know him and have experienced his mercy and love…we know a lot. But it’s like a doctor thinking he knows everything about the human body…. he may know a lot, but there’s still another 99% he doesn’t know. The scientists are giddy about what they’ve learned about the universe with the new Webb telescope… they may know a lot, but there’s still another 99% they don’t know. 
• We’re a bit like the person who just ate a prune thinking he knows what great food is like…. but now he’s getting ready to enter the greatest banquet in history. We’re not talking about prunes and broccoli, we’re talking about lobster and steak and mash potatoes with gravy. Entering into the Christmas celebration isn’t peas & carrots. 
• Okay, so now what… what to do? Well we should certainly continue to try and love God and our neighbor during these next days. But, I’d suggest we try to spend a bit of time away from the “maddening crowd”. Good music can help draw us away from the turmoil and think more deeply about the truth of the incarnation…. about Almighty God sending his only son to this earth to rescue you and me from sin and death and Satan. We need help to embrace this magnificent truth. 
• The Wexford Carol  is a traditional Irish Christmas Carol originating from the town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford.  Composed in the 15^th/16th century, the subject of the song is the nativity of Jesus Christ. While many artists have recorded versions of it over the past 50+ years, a recent favorite of mine is by the Libera Boys Choir. I’ve again included a link to it recorded in the Armagh Cathedral in 2015. The words are beautiful, but not easy to hear on the recording, so I’ve included them at the end of the BLOG. While this particular song is helping me to focus, you may have another; nevertheless look to find a way to calm down and get ready.

During this Christmas season let’s allow the Lord to embrace us as we ponder the great love of God in sending Jesus to save us. Pray and sing the beautiful Wexford Carol (lyrics below)..may these tender words free us of all fear and give us peace.

The Wexford Carol 

Good people all, this Christmas time
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son

With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn
There was a blessed Messiah born

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep
To whom God’s angels did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear

‘Prepare and go, ‘ the angels said
‘To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you’ll find, this happy morn
A princely babe, sweet Jesus born

With thankful heart and joyful mind
The shepherds went, this babe to find
And as God’s angel had foretold
They did our saviour Christ behold

Within a manger he was laid
And by his side the virgin maid
Attending on the Lord of life
Who came on earth to end all strife

Good people all, this Christmas time
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved Son

With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas day
In Bethlehem upon that morn
There was a blessed Messiah born