Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Bach's Christmas Oratorio 

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach, in central Germany, and died in 1750 in Leipzig — indeed, blind. Shortly before his death, he dictated his final musical piece, whose theme was: “Before Your throne, Lord, I now draw near.” As is internationally known, he was a supreme composer who found rich inspiration in the texts of Holy Scripture.

Among his artistic works is also his noteworthy creation, the Christmas Oratorio. Bach has bequeathed to us three oratorios: the Christmas Oratorio, the Easter Oratorio, and the Ascension Oratorio — if we exclude the three surviving works titled Passions (according to Matthew, Mark, and John), which, although written in the oratorio form, together with other similar works came to constitute a distinct genre bearing the classical name Passions, such as those by Schütz, Telemann, Handel, and others.

The Fundamentalism of “Political Correctness”

The Fundamentalism of “Political Correctness”

December 15, 2024

By Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selino

I read somewhere and I agree that in our times we are experiencing a form of “democratic” dictatorship against thought and expression. It is about the one-sided interpretation, according to one's whim, of the term “politically correct”. It is obvious, commonplace and self-evident that no one has the right and can insult or commit wrongdoing against diversity (political, social, gender, religion, origin, language, etc.), as any form of legitimacy of the different that leads to racism which is reprehensible and unacceptable. After all, the rejection of the different, because it is different, is a manifestation of racist behavior and mentality.

And while we agree on the need to protect the correct everyday behavior of citizens, within the framework of the favored state, what is strange and difficult to understand, much less accept, and raises many questions, is the fact that, as far as Christianity is concerned, the term "politically correct" seems to be unknown or rather not applicable by all those who defend its correctness and necessity. When, for example, works of art, films, posters, cartoons and everything else are employed by modern bad craftsmen of our times, who disrespect and ridicule the sacred symbols of the faith of Christ (the symbol of the Cross, the sacred face of the Virgin Mary, the face of Christ, etc.), with the aim and goal of deconstructing the faith, then not only is the logic of "political correctness" not applied, but anyone who raises a different discourse, point of view, opinion and voice, from that which serves "political correctness", is targeted and attacked as an alleged "dark-minded", "homophobic", "Christian Talibanist", etc., by all its defenders.

A Poem by Patti Smith for Orthodox Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Instagram post by Patti Smith on the evening of January 7, 2023.

 

The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

 The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree

By Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1887)

I am a novelist, and I suppose I have made up this story. I write “I suppose,” though I know for a fact that I have made it up, but yet I keep fancying that it must have happened on Christmas Eve in some great town in a time of terrible frost.

I have a vision of a boy, a little boy, six years old or even younger. This boy woke up that morning in a cold damp cellar. He was dressed in a sort of little dressing-gown and was shivering with cold. There was a cloud of white steam from his breath, and sitting on a box in the corner, he blew the steam out of his mouth and amused himself in his dullness watching it float away. But he was terribly hungry. Several times that morning he went up to the plank bed where his sick mother was lying on a mattress as thin as a pancake, with some sort of bundle under her head for a pillow. How had she come here? She must have come with her boy from some other town and suddenly fallen ill. The landlady who let the “concerns” had been taken two days before the police station, the lodgers were out and about as the holiday was so near, and the only one left had been lying for the last twenty-four hours dead drunk, not having waited for Christmas. In another corner of the room a wretched old woman of eighty, who had once been a children’s nurse but was now left to die friendless, was moaning and groaning with rheumatism, scolding and grumbling at the boy so that he was afraid to go near her corner. He had got a drink of water in the outer room, but could not find a crust anywhere, and had been on the point of waking his mother a dozen times. He felt frightened at last in the darkness: it had long been dusk, but no light was kindled. Touching his mother’s face, he was surprised that she did not move at all, and that she was as cold as the wall. “It is very cold here,” he thought. He stood a little, unconsciously letting his hands rest on the dead woman’s shoulders, then he breathed on his fingers to warm them, and then quietly fumbling for his cap on the bed, he went out of the cellar. He would have gone earlier, but was afraid of the big dog which had been howling all day at the neighbor’s door at the top of the stairs. But the dog was not there now, and he went out into the street.

Short Film: "Christmas Anti-Fable" (2017)

Christmas Anti-Fable

Directed by: Efthimis Chatzis
Script Adaptation: Fr. Constantinos Stratigopoulos
Short Story: Ilias Voulgarakis / “A Decent Trinity”
Music: Evanthia Rempoutsika
Executive Production: View Master Films
Produced by: TECHNAVA s.a.
Genre: Sci-fi/Drama
Running Time: 26 mins
Initial Release: September 19, 2017

Charles Dickens, Marley's Chain and Theophylact of Ochrid

By John Sanidopoulos

 

When Jacob Marley makes his ghostly visit to Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens describes him as a transparent spirit bound by a chain. He describes the chain specifically as follows: "The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel." When during their conversation Scrooge asks trembling why he was fettered, Marley replied: "I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” Then Marley reveals to Scrooge that the chain he bears is much more ponderous: "Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"

"All-Bright Theophany": A Short Story by Alexandros Papadiamantis

All-Bright Theophany

By Alexandros Papadiamantis

(1894)

Constanti Plantari’s small boat was running the risk of foundering, while plodding among mountains of billowing waves, each of which was enough to capsize, without letting up, many and strong vessels and send them into the sufficiently spacious abysses, which were able to insatiably devour a hundred boats. It was almost about to sink. A savage northerly wind was blowing full blast ploughing deep trenches in the sea, and the captain of the small shallop had struck down its sail as it was lying to windward. So the boat, left only with its mast, was drifting before the wind and was trying to tack. In vain. After a while the sea held the miserable cork of a boat in its sway and the wind blew it hither and thither. Captain Kostanti Plantari immediately forgot every blasphemy he knew and was preparing to say his prayers while his companion, deckhand Tsotsos, a seventeen-year-old adolescent was stripping off his clothes and ready to dive overboard hoping to swim to safety. The only passenger, cattle-dealer Pramatis, was weeping and thinking it was not worth the trouble to sail on the large sea to drown since firma terra was sufficient to bury so many people.

"The Cantankerous Man": A Christmas Story by Alexandros Moraitidis

The Cantankerous Man

By Alexandros Moraitidis

(1889)

On Christmas Eve Old-Spyraina had excited common curiosity. Indeed, according to the most precise observations of the old gammers – who are the most observant of all living beings everywhere – she had appeared twelve times from dawn till the forenoon upon the Cliff, the highest point in the insular town, from which one could gaze at the expanse of the sea.

“What’s come over that woman there?” The old women repeatedly wondered seeing Old-Spyraina panting up and down the Cliff – she lived at the Threshing Floors, at the extremity of the town.

"The Slacker's Christmas" (Alexandros Papadiamantis)

The Slacker's Christmas

By Alexandros Papadiamantis

The gelid northerly wind was blowing and high up in the mountains was snowing. One morning, master-Pavlos Piskoletos entered Patsopoulos’ public house to steady himself with an invigorating cup of rum, as he was ousted from home by his wife, reviled by his mother-in-law, beaten by his brother-in-law, exorcised by Madam Stratina, his landlady and shown the open palm by his three-year-old son, diligently coached by his worthy uncle to do this reviling gesture, the way parents do among the scum of society – how to revile, swear, blaspheme, and generally be utterly irreverent to holy symbols, such as the holy Cross, icons, candles, censers and kollyva. Tales appropriate for the Athenian public!

"The Christmas Bread" (Alexandros Papadiamantis)

The Christmas Bread

By Alexandros Papadiamantis

(Published in 1887)

Among the many popular characters, who will always be the center of interest in the tales of the future story teller, paramount positions are held by the bad mother-in-law as well as the wicked step mother. Concerning the wicked step mother, I shall try to describe one some other time for the instruction of my readers. This tale is about the wicked mother-in-law.

Christmas Music and Hymns Resource Page

The Christmas Kontakia of St. Romanos

The Singing Emperor Who Was Murdered in Church on Christmas Day

A 17th Century Version of "Christ Is Born"

What Shall We Offer Thee, O Lord

A Byzantine Christmas Carol To Christ and the Theotokos

Irmos - "A Star Has Dawned From the Tribe of Judah..."

A Romiosini Christmas Musical Journey

An Athonite Christmas Carol

A Pontian Christmas Carol

Christmas Carols Sung At the Archdiocese of Athens

Orthodoxy and Western Christmas Carols 

Let's Rethink Our Holly-Jolly Christmas Songs

Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani) 

The Legend Of '12 Days of Christmas'

Good King Wenceslas

The Original Words To The Song "Good King Wenceslas"

"Christmas Oratorio" by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev

Hilarion Alfeyev's Christmas Oratorio 24: Rachel's Lament (video)

 

90-Year-Old Woman from Kalymnos Chants Christmas Hymns

Christmas Stories Resource Page: Literature, Film and Television

 

Charles Dickens 

 

G.K. Chesterton's Biography "Charles Dickens" (1906)  

 

Charles Dickens and Christianity 

 

25 Worthwhile Quotes From Charles Dickens 

 

"A Christmas Carol" (1971 - Animation) 

 

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" as a Reimagining of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

   

Charles Dickens, Marley's Chain and Theophylact of Ochrid

Marley's Bowels of Compassion (or Lack Thereof)

The Reception of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in Greece

Charles Dickens' "The Cricket on the Hearth"

Saint Porphyrios and the Visit of Divine Grace Before Christmas: A True Testimony Similar to "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl"

Russian Tales 

  

The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree (Feodor Dostoevsky) 

 

Nikolai Gogol's "The Night Before Christmas" (1951 - Animation) 

 

Leo Tolstoy's "Papa Panov's Special Christmas" (animation)

 

The Geese in a Blizzard: A Russian Christmas Parable 

 

Russian Cartoon: "The Christmas Visit" (1959)

Greek Tales

Christmas in Greek Literature

Christ at the Castle: Papadiamantis’ Tale Captures the Genuine Spirit of Christmas

"The Gleaner: A Christmas Story" by Alexandros Papadiamantis

"The Slacker's Christmas" (Alexandros Papadiamantis)

"The Christmas Bread" (Alexandros Papadiamantis)

"The Cantankerous Man": A Christmas Story by Alexandros Moraitidis

"John the Blessed": A New Year's Eve Tale by Photios Kontoglou

"All-Bright Theophany": A Short Story by Alexandros Papadiamantis


Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince"


Henry van Dyke

"The Story of the Other Wise Man" (1989 - Animation)

Movie: "The Fourth Wise Man" (1985)


O. Henry

O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi"


Silent Films

"Massacre of the Innocents" (a silent film from the 1910's)

Silent Movie: "The Flight Into Egypt" (1903)

 

 

Movies 

 

Short Film: "Christmas Anti-Fable" (2017)

 

The Fundamentalism of “Political Correctness”

 

 

"It's A Wonderful Life" 

 

The Story Behind "It's A Wonderful Life" 

 

How Frank Capra's Christian Faith Influenced His Films 

 

 

Films About Jesus 

 

Popular Depictions of Jesus On Screen 

 

Robert Powell and His Portrayal of Jesus 

 

"The Passion of the Christ": An Orthodox Perspective

The Reception of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in Greece

By John Sanidopoulos

By the time A Christmas Carol was first translated into Greek in 1888, Charles Dickens was already known in Greece. Despite the high rate of illiteracy in the newly-formed Greek state (87.5% of men in 1840; 93.7% of women in 1870), Dickens began to be known in 1851. His works were published through the four main Greek literary journals by the intelligentsia of the time who wished to publish works that portrayed all social classes to diffuse knowledge and bring about social progress.

"Massacre of the Innocents" (a silent film from the 1910's)

Christ at the Castle: Papadiamantis’ Tale Captures the Genuine Spirit of Christmas

Literary companionship with “the saint of Greek literature” Alexandros Papadiamantis is always a good idea, but especially beneficial during the holidays. Of course, the pious “kyr-Alexandros” covers all the holidays in the Orthodox calendar, but his Christmas stories offer a particularly seminal contribution towards recapturing the true meaning of the Nativity – “the metropolis of feasts” according to St. John Chrysostom.

Papadiamantis’ short stories do a masterful job of recounting the traditional Greek Orthodox ethos associated with this blessed feast, putting him on par with Dickens when it comes to extolling the virtues of Christmas. And while today’s world is still filled with plenty of Ebenezer Scrooges, it is increasingly hard to pinpoint some of Papadiamantis’ classic characters.

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" as a Reimagining of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

Lazarus and the Rich Man is a parable recorded in Luke 16 that Jesus tells in response to the Pharisees, who were self-righteous and wealthy. Lazarus is a beggar who sits by the gate of a rich man’s estate. The rich man walks by Lazarus day after day, ignoring his plight.

Lazarus dies and is carried away by angels to be with Father Abraham. The rich man also dies and is in torment in Hades. He looks up, and sees Abraham and Lazarus far off, on the other side of a chasm that cannot be crossed. He calls out to Abraham to send Lazarus to bring him something to quench his thirst.

Christmas Animation: "Cricket On The Hearth" (1967)

Cricket On The Hearth (1967) is a delightful, animated musical version of Charles Dickens' classic tale. A Cricket on the Hearth, tells the story of a poor toymaker and his daughter whom a helpful Cricket named Crocket befriends on Christmas morning. When tragedy strikes the family, it's Crocket who comes to the rescue and restores peace and happiness.

How Frank Capra's Christian Faith Influenced His Films

By Maria Elena De Las Carreras Kuntz

The career of Frank Capra coincided with the golden age of Hollywood, and many of his films are recognized as classics. Still, most critics seem not to have noticed that Capra's work reflects a profoundly Catholic vision of reality, a vision framed by the Sermon on the Mount. Because his cinema does not have an ethnic Italian flavor, like the Irishness of film director John Ford, this Catholicism is often perceived as an addendum to a body of work primarily concerned with a celebration of American life and its democratic ideals.

Charles Dickens and Christianity

"My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him." - Charles Dickens

The last work of Charles Dickens to be published was a private retelling of the Gospel narratives, titled The Life of Our Lord. It was written in 1849 specifically for his children that they may intimately know the life of Jesus Christ, and he ordered that it never be published. However, when all his children had died, it was made public after 85 years and published in 1934. Dickens respected and loved very much the Bible and Christ and sought to instill in his children the same reverence, though he was never dogmatic about it nor preachy of his personal views, since he opposed all manner of religious fanaticism.

"John the Blessed": A New Year's Eve Tale by Photios Kontoglou

Describes a visit of St. Basil on New Years Eve, which is also the eve of his feast, years after his repose.

John the Blessed

A Tale of Photios Kontoglou

The Nativity Feast having passed, St. Basil took his staff and traversed all of the towns, in order to see who would celebrate his Feast Day with purity of heart. He passed through regions of every sort and through villages of prominence, yet regardless of where he knocked, no door opened to him, since they took him for a beggar. And he would depart embittered, for, though he needed nothing from men, he felt how much pain the heart of every impecunious person must have endured at the insensitivity that these people showed him. One day, as he was leaving such a merciless village, he went by the graveyard, where he saw that the tombs were in ruins, the headstones broken and turned topsy-turvy, and how the newly dug graves had been turned up by jackals. Saint that he was, he heard the dead speaking and saying: “During the time that we were on the earth, we labored, we were heavy-burdened, leaving behind us children and grandchildren to light just a candle, to burn a little incense on our behalf; but we behold nothing, neither a Priest to read over our heads a memorial service nor kóllyva, as though we had left behind no one.” Thus, St. Basil was once again disquieted, and he said to himself, “These villagers give aid neither to the living nor to the deceased,” departing from the cemetery and setting out alone in the midst of the freezing snow.