Oh, Contrarian!

For Sunday, December 27 (the Feast of the Holy Family), sing along on “Silent Night,” perhaps the most beloved of all Christmas carols. Most folks have heard the story about its emergency development: a pastor, Joseph Mohr, asked his organist Franz Gruber to develop a melody on the guitar because the organ was out of order. The lyrics we know are not the original ones. (Those were German.)

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,
Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born! 
Christ the Savior is born!

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love's pure light,
Radiant, beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

Click here for the recording.

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Join us at https://lavezzi.us/ on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas to join in this virtual sing-along. Care to be a serial singer?

• Here is the song from the First Day of Christmas.
• Here is the song from the Second Day of Christmas.

For St. Stephen’s Day, sing along with “Good King Wenceslas”! This song is worth a look in Wikipedia. “King” Wenceslas was actually a Bohemian duke who was declared a saint by the Catholic Church. You’ll see why in this song, where even his footprints in the snow are warm. The lyrics:

Good king Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay 'round about, Deep, and crisp, and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling:
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine-logs hither;
Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page; tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

Click here for the recording.

Not sure what this is about? Click here!

Join us at https://lavezzi.us/ on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas to join in this virtual sing-along. Care to be a serial singer? Here is the song from the First Day of Christmas.