Grand Canyon

Love Divine, All Love Excelling

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
--- Charles Wesley, 1747
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day*

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head**
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
---Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, 1864

*Usually sung to a tune written by Jean Baptiste Calkin
*This poem was written during the Civil War. Two stanzas further reflecting the sense of despair over the war are not usually included anymore in the hymn and are not included here.

Moonless darkness stands between

Moonless darkness stands between. 

Past, the Past, no more be seen! 

But the Bethlehem-star may lead me 

To the sight of Him Who freed me 

From the self that I have been. 

Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy; 

Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly; 

Now beginning, and alway: 

Now begin, on Christmas day.

---Gerard Manley Hopkins

Daughter Zion*

Daughter Zion, O rejoice;

Shout aloud with cheer, O Jerusalem.

See, your King now comes**, riding unto you***,

Royal Prince of Peace, He comes in God's own time.

Daughter Zion, O rejoice;

Shout aloud with cheer, O Jerusalem.

Hosanna, David's Son;

Blessed be Your people, O blessed One!

Your eternal Kingdom establish, LORD!

Hosanna, "Save us!", Eternal Word.

Hosanna, David's Son;

Blessed be Your people, O blessed One! 

 Hosanna, David's Son;

Be with joy now greeted, O King most mild! 

Forever stands in peace Your royal Throne: 

You, Eternal Father's Eternal Child. 

Hosanna, David's Son;

Be with joy now greeted, O King most mild! 

---German Adventslied; translated C. Marie Byars (c) 2004 

*A German folk carol for Advent, set to music from G.F. Handel's Judas Maccabeus **The first Sunday in Advent traditionally has a reading from Palm Sunday, which this song reflects. The "hope" that people had all those centuries before Christ came was to be fulfilled soon after Christ's entry into Jerusalem; He suffered, died on the cross and rose from the dead in that next week. ***The fact that Jesus was able to ride the "unbroken colt" of a donkey which had never been ridden before shows that He IS the Lord of Nature.

O, Blessed Spring*

O, Blessed Spring where Word and Sign 

Embrace us into Christ the Vine: 

Here Christ enjoins each one to be 

A branch of this life-giving Tree. 

Through summer heat of youthful tears,

Uncertain faith, rebellious tears, 

Sustained by Christ's infusing rain, 

The boughs will shout for joy again. 

When autumn cools and youth is cold, 

When limbs their heavy harvest hold, 

Then through us, warm, the Christ will move 

With gifts of beauty, wisdom love. 

As winter comes, as winters must, 

We breathe our last, return to dust; 

Still held in Christ, our souls take wing

And trust the promise of the spring. 

Christ, Holy Vine, Christ, Living Tree, 

Be praised for this blest mystery: 

That Word and water thus revive 

And join us to Your Tree of Life. 

---Susan Palo Cherwien; (c) 1993 

*(A hymn to be sung to the old English folk song, "The Water is Wide [I can't get o'er]"

Pied Beauty (Redux)

Always nice to repeat some of Hopkins work:

Glory be to God for dappled things,For skies of couple-color as a brindled cow,
For rose-moles in stipple** upon trout that swim.Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls***, finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced---fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.All things counter, spare, original, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?)With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:Praise Him.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877

*Pied: Having patches of more than one color; i.e. the "Pied Piper"
**Rose-colored dots or flecks
***Fallen chestnuts, red as burning coals