Where's the silence? Where's the peace?

Merry Christmas! Unlike the consumerist culture, our Christmas just began and continues until Epiphany (even until February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, depending on what you mean). It was a bit of a shock shortly after midnight, December 25 passing into December 26, to turn on a radio station that constantly plays Christmas music during December, only to find that since we were 25 minutes past the 25th, the window of time for Christmas music was apparently over.

Elizabeth Scalia reflects on another difference between a Catholic sense of Christmas and that of the culture at large in this piece. It is a wonderful read.

We have allowed silence to become a gift forgotten, one we only consent to unwrap when all of our alternative bows and strings have been unraveled, and our diversions have been utterly played out. Our inability to be silent puts our minds and our souls at a disadvantage, because it robs us of the ability to wonder, and if we are not wondering at the impossible perfection of the world in its creation—if we are not wondering at spinning atoms and Incarnations—then we are lost to humility, and to experiencing gratitude.

And, without gratitude, we cannot develop a reasoned capacity for joy.

Read it all here.