Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Saint Peter and Saint Paul


With golden splendor and with roseate hues of morn,
O gracious Savior, Light of light, this day adorn,
Which brings to faithful servants hopes of that far home
Where saints and angels sing the tale of martyrdom.

Good Shepherd, Peter, unto whom the charge was given
To close or open ways of pilgrimage to heaven,
In sin's hard bondage held may we have grace to know
The full remission thou was granted to bestow.

O noble Teacher, Paul, we trust to learn to thee
Both earthly converse and the flight of ecstasy;
Till from the fading truths that now we know in part
We pass to fullness of delight for mind and heart.

Twin olive branches, pouring oil of gladness forth,
Your prayers shall aid us, that for all our earthly worth,
Believing, hoping, loving, we for whom ye plead,
This body dying, may attain to life indeed.

Latin, 6th cent.; tr. Thomas Alexander Lacey, 20th cent.?; alt.
Tune: HAWARDEN (12.12.12.12.)
Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1872

The Latin text of this office hymn (Aurea luce et decore roseo) for the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul was once attributed to Elpis, the daughter of Festus, a consul of Rome, but more recent scholarship finds no supporting evidence of this.

The second half of the second stanza gave me some pause, suggesting that Peter was the one to grant remission of sin, but I decided this refers only to his position as "keeper of the keys" to heaven.



Seven Years Ago: Saint Peter and Saint Paul

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Samuel Longfellow


Samuel Longfellow (1819 - 1892), a Unitarian pastor, hymnwriter, and hymnal editor was born today in Portland, Maine, and lived most of his life in New England.  He is probably best known for two Unitarian hymnals he edited with his close friend Samuel Johnson: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (1844) and Hymns of the Spirit (1864). Both of these collections include several texts by Longfellow and Johnson, as well as poets whose verse had not previously been sung (such as John Greenleaf Whittier) or had not previously appeared in an American collection (such as Nearer, my God, to thee) Most of the material was edited to make it conform to Unitarian belief.
Longfellow and Johnson met as students at Harvard Divinity School and remained friends for the rest of their lives, carrying on a long and affectionate correspondence. When Johnson died in 1882. Longfellow spent the next year writing a memoir of his friend. A biographer of Longfellow's would later describe his friendship with Johnson as the most significant relationship of his life. The exact nature of the relationship remains unclear, but it's possible that Longfellow was thinking about it in a rather sad poem called "Love" (1851), which concludes:
 
To love, nor ask return,
To accept our solitude,
Not now for others' love to yearn
But only for their good;
To joy if they are crowned,
Though thorns our head entwine,
And in the thought of blessing them
All thought of self resign.
 
Is this the lament of a man who has decided that his feelings will never be returned in the way he wants? We will probably never know for sure.
 
Today's hymn was written toward the end of Longfellow's life, just a few years before the photograph above (from 1890), and on the occasion of the dedication of the new Cambridge Hospital, in the Massachusetts town where he was then living, and working on a three-volume biography of his brother, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

O Lord of life, our saving Health,
Who mak’st thy suffering ones our care;
Our gifts are still our truest wealth,
To serve thee our sincerest prayer.


As on the river’s rising tide
Flow strength and coolness from the sea,
So through the ways our hands provide,
May quickening life flow in from thee;


To heal the wound, to still the pain,
And strength to failing pulses bring,
Till stumbling feet shall leap again,
And silent lips with gladness sing.


Bless thou the gifts our hands have brought!
Bless thou the work our hearts have planned,
Ours is the hope, the will, the thought;
The rest, O God, is in thy hand.

 
Samuel Longfellow, 1886; alt.
Tune: ELY (L.M.)
Thomas Turton, 1844

The final stanza here has often been taken out of this hymn and used separately in many hymnals as an offertory response, but that actually changes its meaning. In that usage, the text is consecrating the offerings of the people for the work of the church.  However, the complete hymn has a different theme and meaning: that we can be healers through the gifts of God, flowing though us. This idea feels quite modern, even though the language is archaic.



Nine Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

Eight Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

Six Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

Four Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

Thursday, June 15, 2017

The Feast of Corpus Christi


The Feast of Corpus Christi, commemorating the Blessed Sacrament, is observed either on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, or on the following Sunday (generally for convenience).

The feast dates from thirteenth century Belgium, where Juliana of Liege had long believed that such a commemoration should be observed outside Maundy Thursday, during Lent. When she became prioress of the religious community where she lived, she was able to spread her idea more widely through her contact with her (male) confessor, and eventually it was adopted by Pope Urban IV in 1261. It is not part of the Protestant tradition because it was suppressed during the Reformation.

Bread of heav'n, on thee we feed,
for thou art our food indeed.
Ever may our souls be fed
with this true and living bread,
day by day with strength supplied
through the life of Christ who died.


Vine of heav'n, thy love supplies
this blest cup of sacrifice.
'Tis thy wounds our healing give;
to thy cross we look and live.
Thou our life! O let us be
rooted, grafted, built on thee.


Josiah Conder, 1824; alt.
Tune: NUTBOURNE (7.7.7.7.7.7.)
Theodore Aylward, 1869

Said to be the most widely-used of Conder's texts (though we have previously seen others here - click on his tag below), this one first appeared in his collection Star of the East (1824) and later in his Congregational Hymn Book (1836).



Nine (Liturgical) Years Ago: Here, O my God, I see thee face to face

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Sweet Sacrament divine

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: Ave verum corpus - Saint-Saens (video)

Sunday, June 4, 2017

The Feast of Pentecost

This hymn for Pentecost has been sung since the ninth century in one form or another. The translation here is by Bishop John Cosin and has been sung at every British royal coronation since that of Charles I in 1625. (my own preferred English translation, and more about the text, is here).





Nine (Liturgical) Years Ago: Joy! because the circling year

Eight (Liturgical) Years Ago:  O prophet souls of all the years

Seven (Liturgical) Years Ago: Above the starry spheres 

Six (Liturgical) Years Ago: Hail thee, festival day

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Hail festal day! through every age

Four (Liturgical) Years Ago: O God, the Holy Ghost

Three (Liturgical) Years Ago: Spirit of grace and health and pow'r

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: Come, O come, thou quick'ning Spirit

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: Our blest Redeemer, ere he breathed