3 Favorites to Help Us Keep Caroling: Christmas Daybook, 3
A Christmas daybook for these 12 days of celebrating. We'll be spending Christmastide with some favorite short films and video clips. Join me, won't you?
Watch: Junior Garr & The Spirituals perform reimagined traditional Christmas carols! Originally performed in St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2020, this London-based choir brings exciting and rhythmic re-arrangements that go beyond the season.
Joy to the World (We Sing Joy) | The Spirituals Choir
Hark the Herald (Sing Out Loud) | The Spirituals Choir
O Holy Night (Beautiful Saviour) | The Spirituals ft. Kaye-Marie & Niiella
The Feast of St. John
The Feast of St. John the Evangelist is the second of three Prayer Book Holy Days immediately following Christmas Day. The third and final Mass of Christmas, the "Mass of the Day" has as its Gospel the beginning of St. John's Gospel which proclaims the mystery of the Word made flesh. Today would be a particularly good day to spend some time reading and meditating on John 1: 1-14.
John, son of Zebedee, was one of the twelve apostles of Our Lord. Together with his brother James and with Simon Peter, he formed a kind of inner circle of Three among the Twelve, in that those three were privileged to behold the miracle of the Great Catch of Fish (L 5:10), the healing of Peter's mother-in-law (P 1:29), the raising of the daughter of Jairus (P 5:37 = L 8:51), the Transfiguration (M 17:1 = P 9:2 = L 9:28), and the Agony in Gethsemane (M 26:37 = P 14:33). He expressed a willingness to undergo martyrdom (M 20:22 = P 10:39) -- as did the other apostles (M 26:35 = P 14:31) -- and is accordingly called a martyr in intention. However, we have ancient testimony that, although imprisoned and exiled for his testimony to the Gospel, he was eventually released and died a natural death in Ephesus: "a martyr in will but not in deed."
In spite of exile and attempts to kill him, John lived to a great old age. In his last years it is said that he had to be carried to the assembly of the Church and, when he was asked to speak, he would say, simply, "My dear children, love one another."
Read: AM Psalm 97, 98; Proverbs 8:22-30; John 13:20-35
PM Psalm 145; Isaiah 44:1-8; 1 John 5:1-12
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Feast of St. John
Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light, that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Do: Make mulled wine for St. John’s Day and drink a toast to the love of God and to the saint.
Tradition tells us that John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but drank it with no ill effect. A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison is one of his symbols. For this reason, it is the custom to bless wine on St. John's day. The Cranberry Mulled Cider is our go-to beverage throughout Advent and Christmastide (and what we served during the cocktail hour of our son’s wedding seven Januarys ago). We love to add bourbon for the adults in the room. The other variations I’ve linked below looked promising as well. Let me know if you try one!
The Blessing of Wine on St. John's Day
Lord Jesus Christ, Thou didst call Thyself the vine and Thy holy Apostles the branches; and out of all those who love Thee, Thou didst desire to make a good vineyard. Bless this wine and pour into it the might of Thy benediction. Grant that every one who drinks of it may, through the intercession of Thy beloved disciple the holy Apostle and Evangelist John, find courage and strength to pursue the Way, be renewed in the Truth of the Word made flesh, and at the last enter into Life everlasting, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
A glass of wine is then passed around the table.
As it is passed, the giver says: Drink to the love of St. John.
And the recipient answers: For where love is, there is God.
You might also enjoy: 3 Mulled Cider Recipes for St. John's Day
Merry Christmas, friends!
Every year I find myself at Christmastide torn between the lectionary and my desire to have 12 days of carefree fun. Even as the historical church recommended we take twelve whole days for feasting and celebration, the lectionary remains laser-focused on the reality that Jesus’s arrival disrupted the world's systems. The tension continues to form me, and I hope what I offer you here feels like a gift. In Advent, we pace ourselves with the cues of lament, repentance, and longing of the lectionary. On Christmastide, we lift our candles to every spark of light we find in the daily office readings, even as the Scripture passages still forge a trail between the sorrow and joy both alive in the life of Jesus and his followers. Will you walk this pathway with me for twelve whole days? The restful way of Jesus makes a spacious path that welcomes suffering even as we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
You'd think the celebrating part would be easier than the waiting. Like all other spiritual practices, the celebration comes with comforts and challenges. How do we stay present to the feast without our underdeveloped senses dulling too quickly? How do we keep a soft, pliable grasp on the delights of Christmas rather than trying to pin the legs of the thing down into some worn-out wonder?
I don't know. I've only just begun to ask the question.
Because of Christ's first coming, and in anticipation for his second, our waiting -- good, bad, or ugly -- turns to celebration. Between what we've learned about waiting during Advent and anticipating the feasting of Christmastide, we hope to walk through these days thoughtfully, joyfully, and graciously.
This leads to the Great Festival of Christmastide - a prolonged feasting that lasts twelve days.
The layout of the posts will look familiar; you could call them Advent Daybook lite.
Watch: I find myself ready for a bit less contemplation and a bit more lovely entertainment during feast days, so in place of art and song, I’ve curated a sort of “reverse Advent calendar” of video clips. You could pretend each post is a little digital Christmas gift from me to you.
Read & Pray: I'll include with a bit less fanfare the Scripture reading and prayer to help us stay connected to the daily office lectionary.
Do: At the close of each post, I’ll include a list of 12 ways to savor the 12 Days of Christmas. I’ve created a list you could download and print for your refrigerator if you’d like!
In the spirit of Christmastide’s celebration, I welcome you to walk through the 12 days with attention to feasting and joy.
Merry Christmas, friends,
Tamara
p.s. If you enjoy the Christmastide Daybook series, please invite your friends to subscribe too! The Daybook Meditations provide a beautiful experience to share and talk about together.
Bonus Playlists for Christmastide
Christmas Eve (for my Momma): The quirky, sometimes kitschy, a little bit emo, and often melancholy playlist I made when we lived so far away from my parents. We live far away from other people we love, but the playlist's title will remain in honor of those first homesick years.
Ring the Bells: A more traditional playlist (but still highlighting the lesser-known music of the season).
All 12 Days: A playlist for a festive and full Christmastide:
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1).