Songs of the Season, a guest post for the "Snoring Scholar"

Sarah and I met during the Catholic Carnivals weekly a few years ago, since then we have had phone chats, email tags, and are members of the Catholic Writer's Guild together and work side by side during online conferences, what a joy!  Recently, she wanted to host some other Catholic bloggers' thoughts on Advent, I chimed in and she accepted.  Here's my offering that you can also find at her blog, The Snoring Scholar:


With all the hurry and scurry of shopping, decorating, and preparing the foods that make the season of Christmas festive, we dig out the songs of the season to get us in the mood. In nearly every song, the words speak of one central message: Peace.

One of my favorite songs right now is Allan Jackson’s “Let it be Christmas Everywhere”

“Let it be Christmas everywhere, in the hearts of all people both near and far. Feel the love of the season where ever you are. On the small country roads lined with green mistletoe or big city streets where a thousand lights glow. Let every heart sing, every bell ring. Let Heavenly music fill the air, let anger and fear and hate disappear. Let there be love that lasts through the year and let it be Christmas everywhere.”
Let every heart sing, let every bell ring the story of hope, and joy and peace. In the songs that we sing and the gifts that we bring. In what this day means, in what we believe.”

Christmas has an enchanted feel to it like no other time of the year. This is the one special time when peace is possible. Not just peace in our world, but inside us too. That somehow the songs and the prayers would sink into our hearts and transform us is the hope of so many.
In Michael Buble’s song, “My Grown-up Christmas List” he asks if he can still be helped somehow with his grown-up list for a world in need.

“No more lives torn apart, wars that never start, and that time would heal all hearts. Every man would have a friend, that right would always win, and love would never end. This is my grown-up Christmas list. This is my only life’s wish, my grown-up Christmas list.”

This year really listen to the messages of your favorite songs; don’t just let the music carry you away to the kitchen to bake yet another batch of grandma’s cookies, let the message sink in. It is the universal need and yearning for Christ’s peace to transform us. With one transformed heart, others will follow.

“Insofar as men are sinful, the threat of war hangs over them, and hang over them it will until the return of Christ. But insofar as men vanquish sin by a union of love, they will vanquish violence as well and make these words come true: “They shall turn their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into sickles. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)