Come In Our Hearts To Dwell

As you probably know, it's a new (church) year today as we observe the First Sunday in Advent.  Christmas is coming but it's not here yet, in spite of the unavoidable holiday trappings that have sprung up over the past few weeks.  Here, at least, we can slow down a bit and observe this period of waiting.

Anglican hymnwriter Claudia Frances Hernaman provides today's text.  Like most of her other hymns, this one was originally written for children.  

We are more accustomed to hearing the word "Hosanna" on Palm Sunday, but it is also appropriate at this time of year.  The First Sunday in Advent often includes lessons about the second coming of Christ (also seen in this hymn), and the promised reign of peace and justice. We often think of Hosanna as an exclamation of praise, but it is more exactly an appeal for divine help, certainly among the things we do during this time of expectation.

Hosanna! now through Advent,
With loving hearts we sing,
For Jesus Christ is coming
To be his people's King. 
Hosanna! blessed Jesus,
Come in our hearts to dwell,
And let our lives and voices
Thy praise and glory tell.

Hosanna! let this welcome
Ring out through every heart;
Draw near to us, dear Jesus,
And nevermore depart.
So when we see you coming
With angels in the sky,
Hosanna! loud Hosanna
Shall be your people's cry.

Claudia Frances Hernaman, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: WEDLOCK (7.6.7.6.)
Traditional American melody, in The Sacred Harp, 1844

This tune from the American Sacred Harp, or shape note tradition, may never have been matched to this text before. However, like the word Hosanna, the tune is probably not what we would associate with an exclamation of praise, but rather with a plea for assistance.



Six (Liturgical) Years Ago: Lo! Christ comes with clouds descending

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Jesus came, adored by angels

Four (Liturgical) Years Ago: Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates

Three (Liturgical) Years Ago: The King shall come when morning dawns

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: Once he came in blessing

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: In the Advent light, O Savior

Claudia Frances Hernaman

Hymnwriter Claudia Frances Hernaman was born on this day in 1838, in the English village of Addlestone, the daughter of the Reverend W. H. Ibotson, an Anglican priest. She wrote for a number of church publications at a fairly young ago, turning her attention to religious poetry and hymn texts, primarily for children. She also translated several hymns from Latin. and published several collections of her work.

Her most familiar text (perhaps the only one still regularly in use), sung across many denominations, is the Lenten hymn Lord, who throughout these forty days.  Today's hymn for children was written to mark any saints' day in the church calendar.  While we have seen many hymns written for particular saints, there are others such as this that can be sung for any saint's day. October 19, for example, does not mark any well-known saints, but there are still people on the calendar.

All thy saints adore thee, Lord,
Sing thy praise with one accord;
Magnify thy holy Name,
And thy boundless love proclaim.

Saints in paradise at rest,
Saints, by earthly trials pressed,
One in thee, with one glad voice,
Evermore in thee rejoice.

Now, O God, thy praise we tell,
In this saint who served thee well,
Who was strong in Jesus' might,
Conquering evil in the fight.

Grant us, God, with equal faith,
Thee to follow until death,
And, through all eternity,
With the saints to worship thee.

Claudia Frances Hernaman, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: ST. BEES (7.7.7.7.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1862

This simple tune by the prolific Victorian composer John Bacchus Dykes, was apparently named for the village of St. Bees in northern England.

Claudia Frances Hernaman

Claudia Frances Hernaman was born in the village of Addlestone, Surrey on this day in 1838, the daughter of W. H. Ibotson, a Church of England minister.  Like many clerical daughters, she grew up to marry another minister, the Reverend J. W. D. Hernaman, in 1858. Not much else seems to be known of her life except the more than 150 hymns she wrote or translated from Latin, mostly for children.  These were published in several books written by her.

We have already seen her most familiar hymn, first published in her collection The Child's Book of Praise (1873), which still appears today in many modern hymnals.  Today's hymn, appropriate for this season of Hernaman's birthday, is matched with a sprightly tune that children would probably like to sing.

Come, children, lift your voices, 
And sing with us today,
As to the Lord of harvest
Our grateful vows we pray,
We thank thee, God, for sending
The gentle showers of rain,
The summer suns which ripened
The fields of golden grain.

Come join our glad procession
As onward still we move,
Rejoicing in the tokens
Of our Creator's love;
All good is God's creation,
All beautiful and fair,
Birds, insects, beasts and fishes
Our harvest gladness share.

May we by holy living
Thy praises echo forth,
And tell thy boundless mercy
To all the list'ning earth;
May we grow up as branches
Of Christ, the one true Vine,
Bear fruit to life eternal,
And be forever thine.

Claudia Frances Hernaman, 1878; alt.
Tune: BRITISH GRENADIERS (7.6.7.6.D.)
Traditional English melody, 17th cent.

The well-known and traditional tune BRITISH GRENADIERS was used since the eighteenth century as a march for several different divisions of the British and Canadian military, though it has since been heard in many different contexts.  I actually remember it from a long-ago television commercial for Chef Boy-ar-dee's Beefaroni.



Five Years Ago: Emily Swan Perkins

Four Years Ago: Emily Swan Perkins

Four Years Ago: John White Chadwick

Ash Wednesday

Lord, who throughout these forty days
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with thee to mourn our sins
And close by thee to stay.

As thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the vict'ry win,
So give us strength in thee to fight,
In thee to conquer sin.

As thou didst hunger bear, and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Friend,
To hunger, thirst for righteousness,
Injustice to amend.

And through these days of penitence,
And through thy Passiontide,
Yea, evermore, in life and death,
Jesus! with us abide.

Abide with us, that so this life
Of suff'ring overpast,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last!

Claudia F. Hernaman, 1873; alt.
Tune: ST. FLAVIAN (C.M.)
from Day’s Psal­ter, 1563

This well-known hymn for the first day of Lent by Claudia Frances Hernaman has crossed denominations and appeared in many hymnals for more than a hundred years. I've found two modern adaptations of this hymn, one for general use and one with a specific LGBT focus (scroll down slightly on both pages). I think they are both interesting variations on the Lenten themes of the original.

I recently spotted this hymn in an older hymnal index, with its author listed as C.F. Hernaman. Unless you were familiar with this text, you wouldn't know that C.F. was Claudia Frances. I sometimes wonder when I look at an old index if some of the authors and composers listed by their initials are actually unknown women (sometimes anonymous by their own choice). Google and the Internet make cross-referencing easier than it used to be, but I still believe that there are authors and composers, published in perhaps only one or two hymnals, whose gender we may never know.