Good morning. It is Christmas Eve, and I pray that you are ready to enjoy a splendid day in celebration of His coming. Here at NLCC, we will be celebrating our Christmas Eve service beginning at 6:00 and ending at 7:00. This is always a precious time together and I hope that you will be able to join us.
We traditionally close our Christmas Eve services with candlelight songs outside. The very last part of the service is given to the singing of “Silent Night.” As we sing that wonderful Christian hymn, holding our candles for their soft light, blending our voices for our sweetest praise, it is a wonderful moment of closeness to our Savior and to one another.
For today’s thought I would like to share a bit about that wonderful hymn, “Silent Night.”
In 1818 the small Austrian community of Oberndorf bei Salzburg had a new, young priest assigned to guide their church. His name was Joseph Mohr and he had written a poem for Christmas which he called “Stille Nacht,” which translates to English as “still” or “calm” night. His intention was to read his poem to his congregation that evening as a part of their Christmas Eve worship.
As he thought about it, he wondered if his poem could be set to music and taught to the congregation as a new worship song for Christmas Eve. The local School Master, who also served as the congregation’s organist, was a gent named Franz Xaver Gruber. Mohr, the young priest, carried a copy of his poem to the School Master’s home and asked if it would be possible to have him write a melody for the poem so that it could be sung. Mr. Gruber thought he could do so, after all, worship wouldn’t start for nearly three hours, but there was a problem. The church’s organ had been damaged in a flood and was not yet fully repaired. The young priest asked if the song could be written to be accompanied by guitar and School Master/Organist Gruber agreed.
As the congregation met for worship that evening, Christmas Eve 1818, they had a new song to sing. The people who first sang “Silent Night” thought that it was quite lovely, and that could have been the end of it. But not quite. One of those worshipping was Karl Mauracher, who was the organ builder/repairman who was at that time working to repair the church’s organ which had been damaged in the flood. He took a copy of “Silent Night,” complete with its musical score, home with him, where he gladly shared it with friends and neighbors. Two of those neighbor families were the Strassers and Rainers, and both of those families made part of their living as traveling family folk singers. They included the new tune “Silent Night” into their performances.
When Christmas Eve 1819 rolled around those two families were part of a great Christmas Eve worship service that included Franz 1 of Austria and Alexander 1 of Russia in the congregation. They sang the “new” Christmas Eve song “Silent Night,” and they loved it, and they insisted that it be made a part of their royal worship of Christmas Eve from that date forward. In other words, ”Silent Night” had become a hit.
For us, “Silent Night” continues to be an essential part of Christmas Eve worship. The following is the poem of the young priest Joseph Mohr, and as you read the words, I think it is impossible not to apply the melody of Franz Xaver Gruber:
German lyrics | Young’s English lyrics |
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, | Silent night! Holy night! |