Silent night - exam silence

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I was listening to the Christmas carol, Silent Night. I made a search for it, and found out that
the origin of the Christmas carol we know as Silent Night was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr. On Christmas Eve in 1818 in the small alpine village called Oberndorf it is reputed that the organ at St. Nicholas Church had broken. Joseph Mohr gave the poem of Silent Night (Stille Nacht) to his friend Franz Xavier Gruber and the melody for Silent Night was composed with this in mind. The music to Silent Night was therefore intended for a guitar and the simple score was finished in time for Midnight Mass.

The lyric of the song goes as such:

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth "


I get excited when I get to know that Christmas is coming. I dun know about you, but Christmas holds a special meaning in my life... I think I probably said this many a times. Last time, I really used to dream of a White Christmas. Even as I sit in the class, thinking what to do next, I get reminded of this special Christmas feeling that I never failed to have. And of course, since I received Christ nearly 2 years ago, I felt...Christmas just isn't Christmas till you feel it in your heart. By the way this is the classroom:




This will be my man sty for the next 3 weeks. I like staying in this place. It has the 'exam feeling' and staying here allows me to be operationally ready for praying and stuff like that. It has also allowed me to grow my relationship closer with God. I always have this saying for my friends, brothers and sisters, 'there can only be two outcomes from the exam, either you grow closer to God, or you stray away from Him.' I want to achieve the former and I'm not going to compromise on this.

I only have 2 papers this semester. Things look optimistic but I'm praying against complacency. Yet time seems so much and yet so little....

Christmas, I'm so intrigued by the prospect of Christmas after the exam. I remembered last year I watched 'Nativity Story' and I was in tears (not obvious though) towards the end. I think, as a Christian, seeing the birth of my Lord on screen is something so touching. Then you understand the hardship that this Man is going to go through. His birth is only the prelude of His life. He summed it up in Luke:

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
- Luke 9:58


It is indeed a recurring theme in the gospels since His birth. Sometimes, I get so emotional thinking that He's here to suffer for our sake. Well then, maybe it's cos I listen to Christmas carols and mellow worship songs too often...

Anyway, I think I want to get back and do something more useful than blogging. Till I type again.

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