I always loved the nunc dimittis. 

That might sound contradictory. Earlier I said I hadn’t thought much of Mary’s song when I was growing up. Because we sang it to boring tunes and referred to it by its Latin name ‘magnificat.’ 

Well, we also sang Simeon’s song to the same kinds of tunes and used its Latin name. But for some reason, I loved it. 

It conjured the feeling of a peaceful evening. When everything is winding down and all is well with the world. 

As we’ll see in today’s reading, Simeon was an old man who lived in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus’s birth. He met Mary and Joseph in the temple a few weeks after Jesus was born. He had been waiting to see this promised child and, even though he was old, he knew he would live to see Jesus face-to-face.

Continue reading Christmas 2020: Week 4, Day 1: Departure →