Songs of Praise

In our history as Irish people, we have always loved to sing and make music. The Irish are renowned as perhaps the best musicians in the world. No need to mention U2/The Chieftans/One Direction/Westlife/Clannad/Hozier and of course Riverdance to name a few... 

Most young people love X-Factor and The Voice of Ireland. Each May-time we hope Ireland will win the Eurovision Song Contest like we did many times before. But these days in scripture we learn about some songs of praise…

Towards the end of Advent and now during this season of Christmas we hear three great songs being sung. The first is the song of Mary, the Magnificat in praise of God who has done great things for her.

The second song is the song of Zechariah who blesses God because something good is about to happen as his son, John the Baptist is to be the one to prepare the way for Jesus the Son of God.

The third song is sung by old Simeon in today’s gospel for the Feast of the Holy Family. He thanks God for the great gift of seeing the Christ-Child before he dies. Something wonderful is about to happen for the people and is still happening today in our time.

What song can we sing today for Jesus?