One of my St. Nicholas Day traditions is to listen to the Benjamin Britten/Eric Crozier.
I love the prologue:
Nicholas:
Across the tremendous bridge of sixteen hundred years
I come to stand in worship with you, as I stood
Among my faithful congregation long ago.
All who knelt beside me then are gone.
Their name is dust, their tombs are grass and clay,
Yet still their shining seed of Faith survives-
In you! it weathers time, it springs again
In you! With you it stands like forest oak
Or withers with the grasses underfoot.
Preserve the living Faith for which yours fathers fought!
For Faith was won by centuries of sacrifice
And many martyrs died that you might worship God.
Chorus:
Help us Lord! to find the hidden road
that leads from love to greater Love, from faith
To greater Faith, Strengthen us, O Lord!
Screw up our strength to serve Thee with simplicity.
Also this plea by Nicholas from prison:
Nicolas:
Persecution sprang upon our Church
And stilled its voice.
Eight barren years it stifled under Roman rule:
And I lay bound, condemned to celebrate
My lonely sacrament with prison bread,
While wolves ran loose among my flock.
O man! the world is set for you as for a king!
Paradise is yours in loveliness.
The stars shine down for you, for you the angels sing,
Yet you prefer your wilderness.
You hug the rack of self,
Embrace the lash of sin,
Pour your treasures out to bribe distress.
You build your temples fair without and foul within:
You cultivate your wilderness.
Yet Christ is yours. Yours!
For you He lived and died.
God in mercy gave His son to bless you all,
To bring you life,
And Him you crucified
To desecrate your wilderness.
Turn away from sin! Ah! bow
Down your hard and stubborn hearts!
Confess, yourselves to Him in penitence
And humbly vow your lives to Him, to holiness.
Last edited by Thomas the Seeker; 12/06/13 08:21 PM. Reason: More Crozier text
