Joyful, Joyful We Adore You

Joyful, joyful, we adore You, 

God of glory, Lord of love; 

Make us bloom like flow'rs before You, 

Opening to our Sun* above. 

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; 

Drive despair and gloom away; 

Giver of immortal gladness, 

Fill us with the light of day! 

All Your works with joy surround You, 

Earth and heaven reflect Your rays, 

Stars and angels sing around You, 

Center of unbroken praise. 

Field and forest, vale and mountain, 

Flow'ring meadow, cooling dew, 

Singing bird and flowing fountain 

Call us to rejoice in You. 

You are giving and forgiving, 

Ever blessing, ever blessed, 

Wellspring of the joy of living, 

Ocean depth of happy rest! 

God our Father, Christ our Brother, 

With the Holy Spirit One; 

Teach us how to love each other, 

Selflessly as You have done. 

 Mortals, join the happy chorus, 

Which the morning stars began; 

Father love is reigning o’er us, 

Christian love binds man to man. 

Ever singing, march we onward, 

Victors in the midst of strife, 

Joyful music leads us onward 

In the triumph song of life. 

---Henry van Dyke, 1907, 1911; adapted cmb 1990, 2007 

*Often a metaphor for Jesus "the 'Sun' of Righteousness; the 'Son' of God (Malachi)

Nature's Changes

The springtime's pallid* landscape
Will glow like bright bouquet,
Though drifted deep in parian**
The village lies today.

The lilacs, bending many a year,
With purple load will hang;
The bees will not forget the tune
Their old forefathers sang.

The rose will redden in the bog,
The aster on the hill
Her everlasting fashion set,
And covenant gentians frill,

Till summer unfolds her miracle
As women do their gown,
Or priests adjust the symbols***
When sacrament is done.
---Emily Dickinson

*Pallid: pale, dull; lacking in liveliness
**Parian: like marble from the island of Paros (late spring snow blanket)
***No, I don't believe in a merely symbolic Lord's Supper

Easter

Break the box and shed the nard*;
Stop not now to count the cost;
Hither bring pearl, opal, sard;
Reck not what the poor have lost;
Upon Christ throw all away:
Know ye, this is Easter Day.

Gather gladness from the skies;
Take a lesson from the ground;
Flowers do ope their heavenward eyes
And a Spring-time joy have found;
Earth throws Winter's robes away,
Decks herself for Easter Day.

Seek God's house in happy throng;
Crowded let His table be;
Mingle praises, payer and song,
Singing to the Trinity.
Henceforth let your souls alway
Make each morn an Easter Day.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins

*the woman in the Gospels who anointed Jesus's feet with expensive perfume

Queen Creek near Globe, AZ

The World is Too Much with Us

[Technically, the poet doesn't write this one in a Christian vein. He even borrows pagan mythology. But Wordsworth was Christian, and this is a great commentary on modern materialism.]

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not. ---Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn.
So might I , standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."
William Wordsworth

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flow'rs of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer;
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorr'wing spirits sing.
---ancient hymn text

Te Deum Laudamus

("We Praise You, O God", an ancient liturgical text)

We praise You, O God; We acknowledge You to be the Lord.
All the earth worships You, O Father Everlasting.
To You all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein;
To the the cherubim and seraphim continually call out.

The noble army of the martyrs praises You:
The Holy Church throughout all the world acknowledges You,
O Father of infinite majesty, along with Your true and venerable only Son,
And, also, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

When You took it upon Yourself to deliver humanity,
You humbled Yourself to be born of a virgin.
When You had overcome the darkness of death,
You opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

We pray You, therefore, to help Your servants,
Those whom You have redeemed by Your precious blood.
Make us to be counted as Your saints
In glory everlasting.

O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we glorify You,
And we worship Your name forever in unending ages.