I like singing the baritone choral parts at Messiah sings, and plan to do so again this Christmas season. My copy is all marked up now and somewhat dogeared. ( )

For several months prior to Easter, I gathered together with other members of my Church to learn and practice the music of Handel's Messiah each Sunday evening. What began as simply practicing our music transformed into a beautiful study of the Savior's life as we immersed ourselves in Handel's music and the words of the scriptures. We had many wonderful musicians involved with our performance, but many of those involved were amateurs. Our conductor reminded us to keep our eyes on her and to follow her lead. Despite our inexperience, despite the mistakes we made, we raised our voices together to praise our Lord and Savior. And notwithstanding our imperfections, the Spirit accompanied us. It was an amazing experience to sing a masterpiece like The Messiah.

As we performed, I realized that this was not meant to be simply a one time event. Each and every day of our lives is meant to be an expression of our praise for our Savior. Our purpose here on earth is to live such a masterpiece. And our lack of experience, our imperfections, our mistakes will not detract from our performance if we follow our Leader, our Shepherd, Jesus Christ. ( )

Yes, I know this is one of the main-stays of the choral repertoire, but honestly, I don't like it all that much. I adore "I know that my redeemer liveth," and some of the other arias and choral works, but sitting through the whole thing is a bit of a chore. I do have this score in my pc, though, so I can go to sing-ins every so often. ( )