All Citations

In 1741, there was only one thing for George Frederic Handel to do; he had to turn his life around. Handel had enjoyed fame and success in London for thirty years, but now his bread and butter work composing operas had gone out of favor. He had suffered a stroke that temporarily paralyzed his right arm, and bankruptcy loomed as creditors closed in. Frederick the Great wrote, “Handel’s great days are over, his inspiration is exhausted, and his taste behind the fashion.” And so it seemed. Handel needed to turn around.
Though he wasn’t a particularly pious man, Handel was so inspired by the great Biblical texts that he closeted himself in his chambers and threw himself into his composition. Writing around the clock, ignoring meals and sobbing freely onto his score, he finished the 250 page “Messiah” in just 23 days, confiding simply to a physician, “I think God has visited me.”Overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s inspiration, Handel donated all of his proceeds from the Dublin premier, releasing 142 inmates from debtors prison. Back in London, Handel dedicated the score to the Foundling Hospital, directing annual fundraising concerts of the “Messiah” until the year he died. Beethoven would later call Handel, the greatest composer of all time. Handel had turned around. He had turned around because he had finally understood the great good news of Christmas. He had understood that God’s first words to us are comfort and God’s last words are peace, and for that all creation sings: Hallelujah.