Merry Christmas – St. Nick’s News Dec. 26, 2025

Full St. Nick’s News for December 26, 2025

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas.

Yes, it is still Christmas. For us Episcopalians, Christmas is a season, not a single day, and we are given twelve full days to linger, rejoice, and dwell in the wonder of Christ’s birth.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make our Christmas celebrations so meaningful. A special word of gratitude to our musicians, who led us so beautifully through all three worship services and filled our worship with the hymns that carry the story of this holy night.

On Christmas Eve at our 6:30 p.m. service, we remembered—or perhaps heard anew—the story behind one of our most beloved hymns, Silent Night. Its story is rooted in patience, faithfulness, and a quiet attentiveness to God’s presence at work in the world.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Mary gave birth to Jesus and then “pondered these things in her heart.” She did not rush past the moment. She received it. She held together the wonder and the worry, the joy and the uncertainty. Mary pondered the miracle entrusted to her—travel and exhaustion, a borrowed place to give birth, shepherds and angels, a fragile child who was somehow God-with-us.

That kind of holy pondering sits at the very heart of Christmas.

And it is that same spirit that gave birth to Silent Night.

Two hundred years ago, in the small village of Oberndorf, Austria, a young priest named Josef Mohr was ministering in the aftermath of war. Europe was weary. Resources were scarce. The world felt fragile. In that place, Mohr wrote a simple poem about peace, hope, and the nearness of God—not for fame or acclaim, but as an offering of faith.

On Christmas Eve of 1818, when flooding had damaged the church organ, Mohr asked the local schoolteacher and musician, Franz Xaver Gruber, to set the poem to music for guitar. That night, in a small church, the two men sang Silent Night for the first time. It was quiet. Unadorned. Holy.

What began as a simple act of faith in a small village became a gift to the whole world. The song traveled beyond borders and languages, carried by ordinary people who recognized something true and beautiful within it. Even now, when we sing it, something in us stills. We listen. We remember.

That is the power of pondering.

To pause long enough to notice where God is at work. To trust that even small offerings—faithfully given—can become blessings beyond our imagining. To believe that God still chooses to enter the world not with spectacle, but with tenderness and great love.

Christmas is not just a moment we rush past, but a season that invites us to linger. To listen. To make room. To let God’s love take root in us and through us.

So as we continue through these twelve days of Christmas, may we keep pondering.

May we keep listening.

And may we trust that God is still at work—quietly, faithfully, and beautifully—through each one of us.

God’s Peace, Love, and Blessings,
Rev. Beth+