{"id":4246,"date":"2024-12-05T13:18:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T18:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4246"},"modified":"2024-12-05T13:18:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T18:18:58","slug":"the-wexford-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/05\/the-wexford-carol\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wexford Carol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

If carolers come to your front door this December, they will likely sing Jingle Bells<\/em> and We Wish You a Merry Christmas<\/em>, irrationally demanding that you bring them some figgy pudding (which is pretty hard to come by these days).

What they\u2019re less likely to sing is The Wexford Carol<\/em>, one of the oldest of all the English language songs of Christmas.

Not many people, in fact, can either hum the tune or recall the words. The Wexford Carol <\/em>is off our radar screens.

But once you\u2019ve experienced it, it\u2019s hard to forget. This quintessentially medieval carol is like a time machine that transports us to a different setting in a different century.

The origins of The Wexford Carol <\/em>are unknown. The text is thought to be more than 900 years old.  The haunting tune is probably younger.

Local moods and melodies shaped many of the carols we still sing.

Composers often pondered the meaning of Christmas in the context of cold and fiercely beautiful European winters.

What makes The Wexford Carol <\/em>special is that it\u2019s just so very Irish<\/em>, evoking the Emerald Isle winter scene at left.

Ireland gets 24 hours of love every St. Patrick\u2019s Day, when the world becomes preoccupied with shamrocks, green beer, and some truly unfortunate hats. 

But Ireland\u2019s larger role in history, which often goes unmentioned in classrooms, turns out to be extraordinary.

In his book How the Irish Saved Civilization<\/em>, historian Thomas Cahill documents the \u201chinge moment\u201d when the Roman Empire\u2019s disintegration was nearing completion about the fourth century A.D.  The soul of Europe was up for grabs.

Barbarian hordes had overrun every major city. The literary treasures of the Greeks and Romans and the spiritual treasures of the early Church might have been lost forever.

But the Irish stood in the gap.   

Irish monks preserved the wisdom of the ancients, copying and recopying one-of-a-kind documents.

The monks quietly watched over diverse seeds of truth until they might blossom extravagantly centuries later across Europe.

They also pondered what they considered life\u2019s deepest mystery:  how and why God the Creator would ever choose to become one of his own creations in Bethlehem.

Out of such reflections came The Wexford Carol:<\/em>

Good people all, this Christmas time consider well and bear in mind<\/em>
What our good God for us has done in sending His beloved Son.<\/em>
With Mary holy we should pray to God with love this Christmas day<\/em>
In Bethlehem upon that morn there was a blessed Messiah born.<\/em>

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep<\/em>
To whom God\u2019s angels did appear which the shepherds in great fear.<\/em>
\u201cArise and go,\u201d the angels said, \u201cto Bethlehem, be not afraid.<\/em>
For there you\u2019ll find this happy morn a princely Babe, sweet Jesus born.\u201d<\/em>

With thankful heart and joyful mind the shepherds went that Babe to find<\/em>
And as God\u2019s angel had foretold they did our Savior Christ behold.<\/em>
Within a manger He was laid and by his side the Virgin maid<\/em>
As long foretold upon that morn there was a blessed Messiah born.<\/em>

Here\u2019s a rendering of it by Lisa Kelly, a founding member of Celtic Woman<\/a>, an ensemble of Irish female singers.

The Wexford Carol <\/em>is like a candle in the middle of a cold Irish winter, punching a hole in the darkness.

Who knows? 

It might even shine a whole new light on your personal celebration of Christmas.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If carolers come to your front door this December, they will likely sing Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, irrationally demanding that you bring them some figgy pudding (which is pretty hard to come by these days). What they\u2019re less likely to sing is The Wexford Carol, one… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-4246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-carols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4249,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4246\/revisions\/4249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}