Learning the Hymn of the Day for Exaudi, I mean. It's a beautiful text by St. Columba:
Christ is the world's Redeemer,
The Lover of the pure,
The font of heavenly wisdom,
Our trust and hope secure,
The armor of His soldiers,
The Lord of earth and sky,
Our health while we are living,
Our life when we shall die.
Christ has our hosts surrounded
With clouds of martyrs bright,
Who wave their palms in triumph
And fire us for the fight.
Then Christ the cross ascended
To save a world undone
And, suff'ring for the sinful,
Our full redemption won.
Down through the realms of darkness
He strode in victory,
And at the hour appointed
He rose triumphantly.
And now, to heav'n ascended,
He sits upon the throne
Whence He had ne'er departed,
His Father's and His own.
Glory to God the Father,
The unbegotten One,
And honor be to Jesus,
His sole-begotten Son,
And to the Holy Spirit -
The perfect Trinity.
Let all the worlds give answer:
Amen! So let it be.
The, tune, though haunting, is a bit daunting. If you want to practice the tune, it's here:
Moville
4 comments:
William,
That tune is also ELH 425 "Light of the minds that know Him," and we sang it as the opening hymn for the Conversion of St. Paul. Our choir sang v. 1-2, congregation v. 3-4, and it went off great. It is *such* a great tune. I like the words we have with it in our Hymnary too. I'll be repeating it once or twice within the next year so we keep it current.
Nice text! I love St. Columba!
Pastor Jerry Gernander
Thanks for the added info, Jerry! The more you teach about ELH, the more "hymnal envy" I get. :)
Will,
what do the last two lines of this stanza mean? Do they in any way deminish the incarnation? I know that is not their intention... but "go bright jewel and bring to man salvation" (to quote another hymn verse) does describe a "whencing" or a "departing"... do they not? Harvey Mozolak
Down through the realms of darkness
He strode in victory,
And at the hour appointed
He rose triumphantly.
And now, to heav'n ascended,
He sits upon the throne
Whence He had ne'er departed,
His Father's and His own.
Harvey,
They're based on John 3:12 (see text note). I note that Tolkien picked up something of this idea when he describes the eldar as being in both worlds at once - seeing the homeland and yet walking in middle earth. So I don't think any diminishment of the incarnation is involved, rather the confession of it: He who came among us IS He who, in His divine nature, ever sits upon the divine throne. The Ascension exalts the human nature.
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