In the run up to Christmas (formerly known as Advent) each year there is a survey conducted to find the most popular Christmas Carol. For many years the same carol has occupied the number one, or occasionally the number two, slot. That carol is ‘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,
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Saviour is born!
Christ the Saviour is born
Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
It is not surprising really that this should be the number one carol. When we hear it we travel back in time to our childhood years - the nativity play (where this writer as child wearing dressing gown with a towel on his head presented the virgin Mary with a descant recorder) is always crowned by the singing of this classic carol - that is once the entire tableau is assembled for the closing manger scene!
We live in a very noisy world … and that noise does not diminish as Christmas draws near but rather is amplified until one can hardly hear ones own thoughts … so perhaps that is another reason why ‘Silent Night’ seems such an attractive proposition.
Christmas is a time for fun, friends and family. It is a religious festival and it is also a time for secular celebration. It is a time for eating, drinking and parties. It is a time for worship. It is a time for shopping. It is a time of noise and activity.
Yet at its core is a story of a cold, dark, silent night when we encounter a teenaged-mother who has just given birth to her son in a shed behind a pub. A birth into abject poverty and danger … and yet a birth heralded as ‘good news for all humankind’.
And that is what the number one carol ‘Silent Night’ talks of … and … LISTEN and SILENT are spelled with the same letters.
Think about it.
David Pattie
Respond
