Good Tidings of Great Joy: A Reflection on the Third Week of Advent

Good Tidings of Great Joy: A Reflection on the Third Week of Advent
By Camilla MacKenzie, Director of Adult Discipleship
We all have traditions as we prepare for Christmas, whether it’s prayer, like the St. Andrew Novena, or parties that we host, or movies that we watch. One of my family’s favorite traditions is watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. Each year, I love seeing the spotlight turn on Linus center stage to tell the Peanuts gang about the true meaning of Christmas, reciting Luke 2:8-20 “The angel said to them, ‘Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
I love that phrase, “good tidings of great joy.” This joy is not something we create for ourselves with festive traditions, big parties or the perfect batch of gingerbread, but a gift from God, a fruit of the reception of His love in our hearts and into the world. In a year where we are having to adjust our usual traditions, we can feel like maybe we are missing out on some of the spirit that comes with this season, but when we really focus on where this joy comes from, drawing close to God who gives every good gift, including His own Son to save us, then we’ll truly experience the great joy that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds.
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