The world seems to think that Christmas ends on December 25th. But The Church celebrates for 12 whole days! This year we want to help all parishioners celebrate the entire Christmas season. For each of the next 12 days, you will receive a short email with prayers, reflections, and information about this beautiful season, compiled by our Spiritual Director, Ms. Rita Levine.
This first email is being sent parish wide. If you wish to continue to receive these emails please subscribe to the Flocknote group: click on the big red button below!
This first email is being sent parish wide. If you wish to continue to receive these emails please subscribe to the Flocknote group: click on the big red button below!
Introduction:
The 12 days themselves are simply the time between the two major Christmas feasts: the Nativity of the Lord on December 25 and Epiphany on January 6. Since Christmas was the major “birth” feast in the ancient Western churches and Epiphany was the biggie for the Eastern churches, the days between them inevitably gained significance.
The song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol. From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Catholics were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the Church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.
Day 1:
A partridge in a pear tree...The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."