Evening Prayer, Wednesday, April 6

Meeting Christ in Handel’s Messiah

Monologue

Many have often wondered how it is was that I wrote Messiah.  Some said to me after it was performed:  “It must have engaged you for years to write such a masterpiece!”  Ha.  I suppose for some it might require such an extensive engagement.   The truth is it took me exactly 24 days.

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The Fourth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2011

“Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen?  I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was.  “Light!  Give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.

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Evening Prayer, Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Meeting Christ in Handel’s Messiah

Monologue

Greetings, my dear friends.

I would like to share with you tonight a little about the way my oratorio, Messiah, is arranged.  It is divided into three parts.  Part One is based on the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah and tells of his birth.  You might hear selections from this part at Christmastime, even though I had intended that the entire oratorio be performed during Lent.   Part Two of my Messiah is about the life of Christ, specifically about his suffering and death.   We have already listened to several selections from this portion together.  Part Three is my favorite – it tells of the resurrection and exaltation of Christ.  It concludes with the chorus we will hear tonight:  Worthy is the Lamb.

This chorus is the grand climax of my oratorio and sums up everything I wanted to say about Jesus.  How worthy is this Lamb of God who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and who takes away the sin of the world.

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