The Secret of Christmas - Arthur Vaso's Blog

I decided to do a small blog on the inspiration for this poem. Often when writing, I take seemingly random events or stories and find a common thread amongst them to write a poem. I believe this often gives a poem multiple layers and the meaning of the poem sometimes becomes more personnel to each reader. Even if a reader’s take is completely different, that’s the beauty of poetry. Its always full of introspection.

I have always loved history, and especially the history of the Middle East. I often sit in a Lebanese restaurant with friends, and we talk for hours about religion, history, art and culture, and all us there, with an eye on learning more than debating. I have always been fascinated by the ancient language Aramaic, often called the language of Jesus. It is also called “The Lost Language” by some, and of course it wouldn’t be the only one.

Well over coffee I was discussing this with a friend, and saying how sad it is to lose a language, and he replied, well its not completely lost, its spoken right here in Montreal. He explained that in his church, the priests still speak the Aramaic language for parts of the sermon. He invited me to come and hear for myself one Sunday, as things go I kept putting it off or something always came up. Well last Sunday, the Sunday before Christmas, I got up with nothing planned, and so off I went.

I thought how lovely to hear this old ancient language, but also I will surprise my friend. Well it was me who was in for the surprise. The Church by the way is Monastère & Paroisse et Eglise St-Antoine Le Grand. I walked in a few minutes late, and to a standing room only sermon, with children running around, smiling, playing, laughing all while the sermon is going on. Now of course I don’t understand a word or either Aramaic or Lebanese, there was a huge screen with translations in French. ( I will learn boukra)

Soon after I arrived, I heard the most beautiful singing of a choir, even I could not see where they were. (They were in a balcony on the second level) One of the songs was even in Aramaic! For me, this was so beautiful, it was like stepping back in time, and yet in the present of today, so nice to witness the happiness I saw surrounding me.

So even I went to hear this old language, what a pleasure to hear such a beautiful choir, and too see a church full of happy people with children running all around, it was simply heartwarming. After church, in the hall, well Santa showed up with gifts for the kids, and we sat and had coffee, enjoying the moment before us.

So from an old language to choirs I found myself listening to the music of Katherine Jenkins and Celtic Woman along with a few other choirs. There is something magical when the human voice sings, that I can not quite put my finger on, but its there none the less.

The church, also had a beautiful small chapel and a small sanctuary, and of course by the name of the church, this led me to reading up on the Monastery of St Anthony in Lebanon!

So now maybe the photos attached to the poem make a little more sense! Alas, back to the title “The Secret of Christmas”.

Even I have mentioned here the Maronite Church, no, it’s not church, not religion per se, not a beautiful choir, it is far more basic than all of that. It was seeing everyone happy and content, even if in the moment, it was seeing all the parents and adults smiling, because the youthful exuberance of the children, their happiness infected us all.

In a world where we hear so much bad news, yes evil sometimes spreads like a weed, but on this day, I saw something else, I saw that love can spread into a beautiful garden of flowers. When choirs sing, when flowers bloom and children romp and play, then you know LOVE has won that day!

As a small side note, Eileen, you may now tell your class, that half way around the world, people thought of you and all of Lebanon, for the secret of Christmas binds us all!

Ps: That day the choir was so beautiful, even it was missing its best singer Rita  J J