The Twelve Days of Christmas: Hidden Meaning

(Sent from America)

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practise their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechetical song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning, plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each image and number in the carol is a code word for a religious reality which the children could then remember.

1. The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

2. Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

3. Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.-

4. The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

5. The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

6. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

7. Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

8. The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

9. Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

10. The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

11. The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

12. The twelve drummers drumming symbolised the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

December began with rare beauty. Frost sparkled on every blade of grass, on every remaining leaf, and the moon was wreathed in mist. It was icy cold until the evening. Then the rain fell, and has continued to rain.

The last two days of November had their own blessing. Our Bishop came to celebrate the first Mass of Advent with us. We sang the Mass in Latin, and finished with the beautiful hymn "Rorate caeli...", which expresses all the longing of century after century for a Saviour. This yearning was expressed by the Prophets and in the Psalms: the prayers of the people of Israel.

"Shower, O heavens, from above,

and let the skies rain down righteousness,

let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth." Isaiah 45:8a

This can be interpreted on various levels, and may have begun as a harvest and fertility prayer. There is a strong sense of connectedness between ‘the heavens’ (where God dwells) and the ‘the earth’ where we dwell. Naturally, it is also masculine and feminine! And then comes the knowledge that God and Man are dependent upon each other... Everything in the created order is influenced for good or ill by the other: what we seek is balance, which cannot be static. There are constant adjustments to be made, and our inner life may be equally precarious.

It is ‘longing’ which still unites all people who desire deliverance from the evil of oppression, whether external or internal. The Bishop spoke simply, from the heart, about the three comings of the Lord in our lives: His birth in time, His Spirit with us now, and the final Judgement at the end of time. Only recently have I begun to realise that without the ‘second intermediary coming’ to us in the spirit, we could not pray. God is not in the historic past or in the unknown future. God is with us now. He is in the present, and so are we.

On the last day of November, Saint Andrew’s feast day, our group of Oblates and Friends were with us for a day of prayer, meditation and reflection. The conference was my final reflections on "The Blind Men and the Elephant" a satire by John Saxe. It was an appeal for ecumenism and mutual acceptance in our search for God. We all only have a partial, personal glimmer of truth. When these ‘glimmers’ are shared, there is more light for our path.

Despite a certain desire to keep Advent reasonably quiet and prayerful, we cannot manage that due to social obligations to our family, friends and benefactors. Nuns with close family ties have members of their families visiting, usually bearing gifts, and those who live further afield stay in our guest house. That affects the catering, the refectory, and sometimes the choir. Hospitality thus reaches us all, even if sometimes we feel like making the Rabbi’s blessing for the Russian Emperor in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’: ‘May the Lord bless him - and keep him far away from us!’ So another’s pleasure becomes a penance for someone else!

This year each member of our community will receive an "unwrapped gift" from Oxfam which she had chosen personally for other people in need.

"Lord, may the radiance of your glory light up our hearts, and bring us through the shadows of this world until we reach our homeland of everlasting light."

Christmas season prayer.