29 June 2010

Hymn of the Day for Festival of Sts. Peter and Paul

Lord Jesus Christ, the Church's head,
You are her one foundation.
In You she trusts, before You bows,
And waits Your great salvation.
Built on this rock secure,
Your Church shall endure
Though all the world decay
And all things pass away.
O hear, O hear us, Jesus!

O Lord, let this Your little flock,
Your name alone confessing,
Continue in Your loving care,
True unity possessing.
Your sacraments, O Lord,
And Your saving Word
To us, Lord, pure retain.
Grant that they may remain
Our only strength and comfort.

Help us to serve You evermore
With hearts both pure and lowly;
And may Your Word, that light divine,
Shine on in splendor holy
That we repentance show,
In faith ever grow;
The pow'r of sin destroy
And evils that annoy.
O make us faithful Christians!

And for Your Gospel let us dare
To sacrifice all treasure;
Teach us to bear Your blessed cross,
To find in You all pleasure.
O grant us steadfastness
In joy and distress,
Lest we, Lord, You forsake.
Let us by grace partake
Of endless joys and gladness.
LSB 647

7 comments:

Chris said...

Interesting that the hymn for the day of Sts. Peter and Paul makes not even one mention of them. Are we so afraid to name the saints lest any honour be detracted from God?

William Weedon said...

No, because the other hymn that begs for use on this day contains this stanza:

We praise You for Saint Peter;
We praise You for Saint Paul;
They taught both Jew and Gentile
That Christ is all in all.
To cross and sword they yielded
And saw Your kingdom come.
O God, these two apostles
Reached life through martyrdom.

But rather than focus on the men, the hymn of the day invites us to focus on what the men themselves focused on.

The liturgy for the day, by the way, names them in the collect and in the Proper Preface.

Chris said...

Which proves my point, Fr. Weedon. Lutherans (modern ones, at least) are so overly cautious when it comes to the saints that even mentioning them is regarded as idolatry!

William Weedon said...

With due respect, my friend, it shows your comment is BALONY. We mention the saints by name specifically at more than one place in the liturgy!

Chris said...

Where, specifically? (I honestly don't know and I don't have access to an LSB).

William Weedon said...

I cited them both earlier:

Merciful and eternal God, Your holy apostles Peter and Paul received grace and strength to lay down their lives for the sake of Your Son... (Collect)

Therefore with patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, with Your servants Sts. Peter and Paul, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify... (Preface)

Past Elder said...

Hey just be glad Vatican II left it where it was, or we'd be celebrating it God knows when, like poor old Cyril a couple days ago.

Cyril was a goof anyway. Ask Orestes, prefect of the diocese of Egypt (that's when diocese was an Imperial jurisdiction, not the church one, though Cyril's assumption of the prefect's power did a lot to turn the one into the other and remake church overseers into church prefects or "bishops"). Or ask the Jews of Alexandria. Or Hypatia, dragged from her chariot, hacked to pieces then the pieces burned by Cyril's guys. So let Vatican II have him.