It's Christmas Everywhere!

One of my favourite Christmas CDs is Relient K's Let It Snow Baby...Let it Reindeer. One of the tracks on it is a cover of Silver Bells. Relient K does a great job of creating some more sophisticated sounds for the classic, including a sweet piano riff. But in true Relient K fashion, they also wrote a bridge:

Christmas time is almost here
Take the time to breathe the air
The bells ring out, tell us about
How Love was born this day

As the song transitions from this bridge back into the final chorus, I can't help but think of the song with a new perspective; one that is more Christ-centered. It's a beautiful piece of music. Here, in the middle of a "Christmas" song is a little bridge that reminds me that I can find the beauty and wonder of Jesus in many places during Christmas, not just by participating in mass or by looking at nativity scenes. I can find Him in the hearts of mall santas, in the hearts of children laughing, in the streetlights blinking red and green, and yes, in the sound of silver bells.

Let us rejoice! Our Saviour has been born to show us how to live and how to love. Look for that love everywhere.

Here's a link to Relient K's Silver Bells:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtBtksPqD4

Merry Christmas everybody!

Mary and Joseph's Christmas Wish

I'm young. I'm only 21. And so, I am not going to say that I have a lot of life experience, nor will I assume that I will ever know what everyone is going to go through during their lifetimes. But I can say with confidence that no one, NO ONE, is going to experience anything that will top having an archangel appear to you and tell you that you will give birth to God.

BAM.

Mind blown.

The Consequence of Prayer

There are the times when we really get into a state of prayer...and we don't ask, we don't plead, we don't try to reason with God - we may not even be consciously thanking Him - we just are. We sit. We kneel. We revel in His power and in His presence. And then something happens within our hearts and minds. Something that, having myself experienced far too infrequently (especially during exam time), begs me to ask this question of the Church and her historical heroes: why is it that the greatest saints have all thought of themselves to be the greatest sinners?

The saints are saints because they were constantly striving, during their lives on earth, to seek God. I think a major part of this authentic drive is humility.