On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Twelve drummers drumming.
A few years ago I got to attend a drum line competition for one of my teens. I’d say it was pretty much like twelve drummers drumming. Actually, I had no idea that a percussion only band could sound like that. It was pretty cool. Today we come to the end of the song and the end of the Christmas season.
What if during this new year we tried to accomplish just one or two things we’re afraid of? And not slightly meaningless things like sky-diving or beetle consumption. I mean things that have a ripple effect into eternity.
I’m afraid of wearing bright red lipstick. But I’m also afraid of seriously praying about a vocation to the religious life. I’m afraid of sushi. And I’m afraid to let go of resentment and love my enemies.
I think you can tell which ones are under the “slightly meaningless” category.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Eleven pipers piping.
Have you ever heard bagpipes? They have a distinct and loud sound. When in I was in high school, a family friend was visiting. She was an accomplished musician who played many instruments, including the bagpipe. For whatever reason that afternoon, she actually played the bagpipe in the house. It was so loud. It became my and my brother’s instant opinion that bagpipes are made for outside spaces or very, very large indoor spaces—never inside the house!
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Ten Lords-a-leaping.
The dancing continues today with the lords getting involved. For a better context of lord, think Lord and Lady, Duke and Duchess, Prince and Princess, etc. The United Kingdom has a “House of Lords,” which is part of the Parliament. Of course, I doubt they are physically leaping . . . or playing leap frog, for that matter.
So, let’s just jump (or leap) right in to what the ten leaping lords can represent.
Day 9 On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . Nine ladies dancing. Adding to the good food from yesterday, we now have dancing. Don’t these dancers evoke images of the great Christmas ballet, the Nutcracker? Not only are there at least nine ballerinas dancing, there are mice and nutcrackers and swords and more dancing. Can’t you hear Tchaikovsky’s music of the Sugar Plum fairies? Whether you like ballet or any kind of dancing, you will like what these nine dancers can represent. We talked earlier about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit [...]
Readings for the Epiphany of the Lord: Is 60:1-6; Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Eight maids-a-milking.
Today we begin the celebration phase of the song; we have had the perfect number of birds. Now, we have a festive gathering. Let the celebration begin!
We start with food. Have you ever milked a cow? The closest I ever came was visiting a dairy farm as a child. I remember looking at cows and the distinct, unpleasant smell. Moreover, I remember the end of these trips which always resulted in great ice cream. From milk comes a lot of great party food, including nacho cheese.
Whereas there are geese (day six) in my neighborhood, there are not swans. Never fear, though, there is a nearby lake whose owners brought in swans.
Or at least, there were swans. They were picked off and eaten one by one by a river otter who would hunt them from under the water. The swans had no chance of escape because their wings were clipped. The otter was eating a rather expensive supper because swans are not cheap.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Six geese-a-laying.
Today we have reached our half-way point of our 12 Days of Christmas. Are you still celebrating the birth of the Messiah or have you moved back in to your normal routines? Do you still have your nativity scene up, inching the magi closer to the stable each day as we get closer to Epiphany? Are you moving closer to Christ or away from Him?
The six geese-a-laying can represent the six days of creation.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Five golden rings.
When we get to day five in the song, the music slows down, and we take a break from birds to focus on something that most everyone finds valuable – gold. It would only make sense for a true love to give golden rings to his beloved. Actually, the five rings is where we see another variation on the lyrics. Sometimes it is golden rings and other times gold rings. Believe it or not, the gold rings actually stand for pheasants.
Actually, the lyric is colly birds. Yeah, four colly birds. Apparently there was something lost in translation from Europe to the United States, where we sing calling birds instead of colly birds.
What is a colly bird? I was hoping you’d ask.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .
Three French hens.
French fries. French horns. French hens. Today, we have three of them.
Remember, each verse of the song can help us recall an aspect of our faith. We have a lot of options today as the number three is pretty popular in Church-talk; the number seven is, too, but we’ve got four days until we get to seven.
Yesterday, December 26th, we celebrated the feast of St. Stephen. He was the first martyr. Isn’t it interesting how the Church has placed the feast of Christmas and the feast of this saint right after one another? I feel like we’re supposed to learn something here . . .
Accepting Jesus as our Savior and following Him costs a lot. Blessed Bartolome knew that and wasn’t afraid of death even though it meant leaving his beloved behind.
Below is a letter that Bartolomé Blanco Márquez wrote to his girlfriend from prison the day before he was executed during religious persecution in Spain in the 1930′s.
Readings for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God: Nm 6:22-27; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21
Yesterday we were able to thank the God for the gift of his only Son, the Word made Flesh. Today, we are reminded of the Word of God, the written tradition of the Church. The Old and New Testaments make up our story, our history of faith. Yes, they might be old, but they are still relevant today. Just as you may have heard some family story at Christmas dinner, the OT and NT is the family story of our Church.
We have four Nativity sets in my house: not out of overindulgence but out of sheer necessity. One set is for my five year old, who likes to take a more “interactive” approach to the Nativity, including putting Disney princesses and Barbies into the Biblical narrative. Last year when I asked why the baby Jesus was in Barbie’s convertible, she responded, “Barbie is baby-sitting, Daddy… the trip to Bethlehem left Mary and Joseph very tired.”
You may have a Nativity set beneath your Christmas tree or on a table inside your house. You almost certainly have one on display somewhere around your local Church…
Over the next 12 days, we’ll be taking a look at each verse of the 12 Days of Christmas song and see how it can relate to living out our Catholic faith.
“The liturgy of Advent . . . helps us to understand fully the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas. It is not just about commemorating the historical event, which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village of Judea.
Instead, it is necessary to understand that the whole of our life must be an ‘advent,’ a vigilant awaiting of the final coming of Christ. To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, ‘one day will come to judge the living and the dead,’ we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life.
Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously.”
Christmas is so close! Here’s another fun, Christmas music video that we thought you’d enjoy. It involves a great deal of cardboard props (or maybe styrofoam), an old man in a brown turtle-neck being a reindeer, plenty of people in white fuzzy suits, and one of our favorite bands – Tenth Avenue North.
Enjoy, and have a happy second-last day of Advent!
