Tag Archives: Christmas

Christmas Play List

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Back in the day, I used to enjoy making Christmas Mix Tapes or CDs for family and friends. Today’s equivalent I guess is the Play List. So I made one. You can listen here.

Christmas Play List graphic

Susan Rose’s 2020 Christmas Play List on YouTube

It’s a mix of old favorites by favorite artists, some newer songs and some new-to me artists, starting with three of my own prayer videos set to music. And yes, some songs are repeated! It’s 2020. All rules are flexible.

Enjoy! and Blessings of Peace!

Song list:

As Joseph was a Walking – Annie Lenox
Only at Christmas Time – Sufjan Stevens
Joy to the World – Sufjan Stevens
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Sara Groves
Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? – Sufjan Stevens
Christmas (Baby Please Come HOme) – Darlene Love
The Christmas Song – Aimee Mann
Winter Wonderland – She & Him
Jingle Bells – Ella Fitzgerald
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Phoebe Bridgers
All I Want for Christmas – THe Yeah Yeah Yeahs
O Come All Ye Faithful – Weezer
What are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – The Head and the Heart
Are You Coming Over for Christmas? – Belle & Sebastian
Winter Wonderland – Radio Head
The FIrst Noel – Weezer
O Little Town of Bethlehem – Belle & Sebastian
Jingle Bell Rock – Arcade Fire
Donna & Blitzen – Badly Drawn Boy
Last Christmas – Jimme Eat World
Blue Christmas – Bright Eyes
The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
Baby It’s Cold Outside – John Legend feat. Kelly Clarkson
Frost the Snowman – Fiona Apple
It’s Beginning to Look a lot LIke Christmas – Bing Crosby
Skating – Vince Guaraldi
7 O’Clock News/Silent Night – Pheobe Bridgers (feat. Fiona Apple and Matt Berniger)
Wonderful Christmastime – The Shins
Little Drummer Boy – The Dandy Warhols
Xmas Time is Here Again – My Morning Jacket
O Holy Night – Weezer
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Albin Lee Meldau
I Heard the Bless on Christmas Day – The Civil Wars
Happy Xmas (War is Over) – The Polyphonic Spree
Santa bring my baby back to me – Belle & Sebastian
I Want an Alien for Christmas – Fountains of Wayne
Good King Wenceslas – The Irish Rovers
The Christians & The Pagans – Dar Williams
Christmas in Hollis – Run DMC
Last Christmas – Wham!
O Holy Night – Tracy Chapman
Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Frank Sinatra
O Christmas Tree – Aretha Franklin
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – U2
On Christmas Day – Spiers & Boden
The First Good Joy Our Mary Had – Fraser Freda Boyes
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer – Nowell Sing We Clear
Christmas in Killarney – The Irish Rovers
Let Us the Infant Greet – Loreena McKennitt
Tracks in the Snow – The Civil Wars
All My Christmases – Julian Edwards
Christmas Song – Phoebe Bridgers
Someday at Christmas – Jack Johnson
I Saw Three Ships – Th Irish Rovers
God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman/We Three Kings – Bare Naked Ladies Feat. Sarah McLachlan
I Wonder as I Wander – Audrey Assad






Christmas with Joseph during uncertain times

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My Christmas card this year is a picture I took of a statue of St. Joseph “looking” at a Christmas tree lit up on the grounds of Bon Secours retreat center in Maryland that I took last year on retreat.

ChristmasCard2018

As I wrote in my Christmas Letter to family & friends:

I’ve been spending time talking to Joseph these days.  In our CSJP constitutions we say about Joseph:  “His courage to life a life of faith inspires us to trust in God’s abiding love, especially in times of struggle and uncertainty.”

Pope Francis writes about his own prayer practice with Joseph, and that he’s the one he goes to when he is “in a fix.”  He writes little notes of problems that need fixing and slips them under a statue of Joseph.  Joseph was a carpenter after all.  When we spend time with the Gospel readings about the birth of Jesus, Prince of Peace, during the time of empire, we can see that Joseph understands what it’s like to keep on keeping on during challenging times. 

We don’t often spend a lot of time with Joseph, but I think we all could use a little Joseph in our lives these days.

This Christmas Eve, I prayed with “As Joseph Was a Walking” recorded by Annie Lennox. If you want to spend some time with Joseph, here’s my video prayer reflection:

Incarnating Love

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On the 25th of December, Christians around the world celebrate the feast of the incarnation of God’s infinite love in our midst  … the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with Us … a mystery for the ages to be sure.

It is an awesome thought, to paraphrase a popsong from the 90s, not what if, but that God DID become one of us. That reality brings both comfort and challenge if one manages to screen out the commercialization of the holiday to the real fundamental message, which is love.

All powerful love … and the love of a vulnerable poor child born in a stable far from his parents’ home.

Universal love … and the particular love of a family, unconventional as it may be.

Love that is meant to transform and expand exponentially to break the binds of oppression, free captives, and build beloved community.

Love incarnate, now and then and always and forever.

It’s incredible on a theological level amd mind boggling on a practical human level.

It is stretching on a heart level, and that my friends is where my Christmas reflections take me this evening. How are we, how am I, called to incarnate love? 

We incarnate love through our touch, a kind word, our presence. We can incarnate love through our dedication and faithfulness. Sometimes we are called to incarnate love through our questions and struggles, in the messiness of our lives and in the systems of oppression we resist.

Through it all, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, is our model, our wonder counselor, our friend.

Jesus, be with me as I seek to be an incarnator of love in my own life.

Amen.

Guide our feet into the way of peace

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About ten years ago I began a personal Christmas tradition of taking a long solitary walk on Christmas Eve morning.  That first walk was very special and played a key role in my discernment to become a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace. Not every Christmas Eve morning walk has been quite so profound since, but each one has held its own special blessings.

Last year, for example, I went for a walk in the forest on fresh new snow! (You can watch the video prayer I made from pictures taken on that walk.) It was spectacular to celebrate the incarnation in the midst of God’s wondrous creation.

Christmas Eve morning walk - 2014
Christmas Eve morning walk – 2013

This year I went for a soggy walk in the rain in my Chicago neighborhood.

Christmas Eve morning walk - 2014
Christmas Eve morning walk – 2014

I found myself praying with the Gospel reading from this morning (Luke 1: 67-79) which is actually the Canticle of Zechariah which the church prays daily as part of morning prayer. As hinted at by the title of this post, my footsteps especially echoed the last lines:

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

I walked through this tunnel, as I often do, on my way to the lake. This morning as I approached the tunnel, I saw two gentleman having a conversation. One was holding a black garbage back and pointing to the litter in the park. He handed the trash bag to the other man, told him there were plastic gloves inside, and that this was as good a place as any to start. I was intrigued, but I kept going on my walk to the lake.

On my way out of the tunnel heading home, I spotted the one man who had been given the trash bag and gloves. Sure enough, he was wandering through the park, in the rain, spotting trash and putting it in the bag. I found myself thinking, “What a lovely gift for Christmas, cleaning up the park.”  As I rounded the corner to cross the street, the man was within speaking distance. I wished him a Merry Christmas and asked what he was up to. It turns out, he’s down on his luck and trying to raise some money to go visit his son for Christmas. The other man was paying him to clean up the little patch of park. Again …. in the rain. Given that I had been praying for the tender compassion of God to break upon us, I of course gave him a little contribution myself.

How wonderful to celebrate the gift of the incarnation in the midst of God’s wondrous creation.

As I turn off the computer and get ready to head off to spend this day with my own father, I hold this man and his family especially in my prayers.

And I pray for all of us, that we may indeed welcome the prince of peace by stepping onto the path of peace. In our hearts. In our families. In our cities. In our world.