The Fourth Sunday of Advent-
Almost Lost in the Holiday

Hey, wow, it's Christmas Eve. Can hardly wait until tonight. There will be all the candles and the carols and...

oh, yeah...

It's also a Sunday and Christmas Eve doesn't begin until tonight. How easy it is to get all these holidays mixed together. How easy to forget that these Sundays before Christmas (and, by definition, Christmas Eve IS before Christmas) are our way of getting ready to celebrate the unique and inexplicable happenings of Christmas.

So before we get lost in the hallelujahs and the piety of tonight, here is one song we won't sing tonight- but perhaps should- as a reminder of the depth and width, and height and length of God's love. We often call it The Magnificat, but it is truly Mary's Song, a song of longing about to be satisfied, a song of promise about to be fulfilled, a song of hope for the least, the lost, the lonely, the oppressed, and the poor.

“ My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.”
--Luke 1: 46-55