Advent and Christmas: Christmas Eve
Listen to Silent Night
Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. (Silent Night #111 1982 Episcopal Hymnal)
Holy Infant
Velvety darkness, quiet voices singing, candlelight, everyone gathered around the nativity and the altar, the holy infant sleeping amid the animals and angels: Christmas Eve is here. A newborn’s cry in the night, a mother’s beatific exhaustion, a father’s relieved sigh, and glory shines. In a stable Jesus is born, heaven and earth overlap, and so begins the redemption of the world. We are not abandoned to our fate. Emmanuel has come. God is with us. Christ our Savior is born.
Pause and realize that Christ has come to you, to be with you, to know you.
Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. (Silent Night #111 1982 Episcopal Hymnal)
Holy Infant
Velvety darkness, quiet voices singing, candlelight, everyone gathered around the nativity and the altar, the holy infant sleeping amid the animals and angels: Christmas Eve is here. A newborn’s cry in the night, a mother’s beatific exhaustion, a father’s relieved sigh, and glory shines. In a stable Jesus is born, heaven and earth overlap, and so begins the redemption of the world. We are not abandoned to our fate. Emmanuel has come. God is with us. Christ our Savior is born.
Pause and realize that Christ has come to you, to be with you, to know you.
