I started this 12 day journey with reflections on sound and how our stories say we are products of God's own Breath.
To be honest, my first inclination for starting the season was with some sort of riff on "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," a Eucharistic hymn that I probably associate with Christmas because it was on John Michael Talbot's Christmas album years ago. It's fitting for a Christmas setting, of course. The nativity is referenced, and it is all about incarnation, both in the person of Jesus and in the sacrament of Holy Communion.
I would refer you to the Wikipedia page for this hymn. I did not know how ancient it is. Interesting stuff.
Twelfth Night is usually a time for festivities and merriment and here I am wanting to keep silence. Well, I'm often contrary, and I don't have a party to go to, anyway.
But find a recording or 3 of this hymn (JMT's is lovely, but he leaves off the last verse, keeping only the alleluias) or just read the words on the Wikipedia page. It is full of so much of Christian teaching about the incaranation, how it is not only in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but also in the sacrament offered every Sunday (your experience may vary depending upon the denomination and congregation). It even has something for me to argue with in the first verse---or perhaps a tension to resolve. "Ponder nothing earthly minded" even as it tells us "God to earth desendeth." Seems like descending to our estate is precisely the earthly-minded thing to ponder.
But I digress, like I do.
Mortals keep silence, heavenly host cover their faces, God-With-Us is with us!
I think I shall close this year's Christmastide with a moment of silence, save for some alleluias.
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