With 'Holy Night' Don
Orione hits the high note!
For years, many have
known Don Orione for its nursing home and for the huge,
world-renown statue of the Madonna on Orient Avenue
that's housed in one of the tallest buildings in East
Boston.
Since its founding by
the Blessed Fr. Louis Orione, the community has helped
usher the final years of many souls according to the
teachings of Jesus Christ. The home has offered comfort
to sick, the poor and the dying. And, as a result, has
garnered financial and emotional support from families
all over the Metropolitan Boston area.
However, few know of
the great contributions to local culture made by the
fathers, brothers and sisters of Don Orione. Last Sunday
night, before a packed church audience at the Madonna
Queen National Shrine, the Don Orione community put on a
poignantly choreographed Christmas Pageant and Concert,
titled The Holy Night. Through its brilliance and
enthusiasm, the concert demonstrated that East Boston
could use more of such wonderful performances.
Under the direction of
Fr. Lawrence Tosatto, community members of all ages
presented a re-enactment of the birth of Christ with
remarkable pageantry and music. The words of the Louis
Orione opened the pageant as actors gathered at both
sides of the church. "Today, in all the world,
Christmas - the Holy Night of Jesus Christ's Birth is
being celebrated and everywhere there is a peaceful
serenity of great universal joy… God's kindness is
making itself felt! What are hate, evil all the darkness
of this world in comparison with the holy light of this
Christmas night? Nothing! In the presence of Jesus -our
Infant Jesus they are nothing indeed. Let us take solace
and rejoice in the Lord…the last to conquer is the
Lord and he conquers with mercy."
With a musical score
highlighting the biblical scenes, the pageant progressed
from the prophecy of Isaiah to the Annunciation and the
Visitation through the nativity where the Son of God was
wrapped in swaddling clothes. Along the way were the
Shepherds who kept night watch over their flock and the
stars and the heralding angels. The visit of the Magi was
also played out. Finally, the Italian folklore group,
"Ricordi D'Italia" rounded out the adoring
flock of followers signifying the everlasting power and
grace of Christian virtue over time. In between this
pageants and the music rose the words of the slain
Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero: "No one can
celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly
poor."
Fr. Tosatto's
orchestra and choral met the challenge of those words and
the spirit they embodied in songs that both captured the
calmness, solemnity and the joy of Christmas. "Holy
Night" was also an opportunity to celebrate the
opening of the 50th anniversary of the Don Orione
Home and Shrine. Fr. Tosatto and The Madonna Queen
Chorale and Orchestra and the entire entourage
underscored the ongoing contributions that Don Orione
will make for another 50 years.
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