To Love With All Our Might

Today's hymn for morning worship (or gathering) comes from a fourth-century Latin text written by Saint Ambrose, a bishop of Milan who was later declared a Doctor of the Church. Ambrose is also remembered for his hymns (which inspired others to write texts in a similar form), and was said to have promoted the practice of antiphonal chant, where two sides of the choir sing different portions of the chant or psalm.

The Latin text beginning Splendor paternae gloriae has been translated by various people and even the Latin has been altered over the intervening centuries. This version draws from a few different translations and includes fewer stanzas than the original.

O splendor of God’s glory bright,
From light eternal bringing light;
O Light of light, the fountain spring,
O Day, all days illumining.

Come, very Sun of heaven's love,
In lasting radiance from above,
And pour the Holy Spirit's ray
On all we think or do today.

Teach us to love with all our might;
Drive envy out, remove all spite;
Turn to the good each troubling care,
And give us grace our name to bear.

All glory be to God Most High;
To Jesus Christ let praises rise;
Whom with the Spirit we adore
Forever and forevermore.

Ambrose of Milan, 4th cent.; tr.composite
Tune: PUER NOBIS (L.M.)
Michael Praetorius, 1609
harm. George Woodward, 1901

The Feast of the Epiphany

Today's Feast of the Epiphany marks the visit of the "three kings" to the baby Jesus and his parents, told in Matthew 2:1-12, though as you can see they aren't called kings there, nor are there said to be three of them.

Another important part of the story is the star that led them on their journey, which always appears in the hymns for this day. Its appearance was foretold in Numbers 24:17, which reads in part: There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, which many will recognize from a popular Epiphany anthem by Felix Mendelssohn.

Today's hymn was written in Latin (Quae stella sole pulchrior) by Charles Coffin and appeared in the Roman Catholic Paris Breviary (1736). It was translated by John Chandler a century later though it has been much altered since.

What star is this, with beams so bright,
More beauteous than the noonday light?
It shines to herald forth the Word.
Of whom the nations long have heard.

True spake the prophet from afar
Who told the rise of this bright star:
And eastern sages with amaze
Upon the wondrous token gaze.

The guiding star above is bright:
Within them shines a clearer light,
And leads them on with power benign
To seek the Giver of the sign.

Their love can brook no dull delay,
Though toil and danger block the way;
Home, kindred, native land, and all
They leave at their Creator's call.

To God our Maker, heav'nly Light,
To Christ, revealed to earthly sight,
And to the Holy Spirit, raise
Our equal and unceasing praise.

Charles Coffin, 1736
tr. John Chandler, 1837; alt.

Tune: PUER NOBIS (L.M.)
Michael Praetorius, 1609
harm. George Woodward, 1901

Two Years Ago: Saw you never, in the twilight

One Year Ago: Earth has many a noble city

To Show God's Love Aright (Day Nine)

Moving away from the obscure for a day or two we come to a Christmas selection that I know is a favorite of many. More than four hundred years old, it comes from German Catholic origins, first published in Gebetbuchlein des Frater Conradus (1582) in nineteen stanzas. At that time it focused on Mary, comparing her to the Rose of Sharon from the Song of Solomon 2:1. In Cologne, a later hymnbook, Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengeseng (1599) published twenty-three stanzas.

Before long the hymn was taken up by the Protestants and reinterpreted to relate to Jesus. Some claimed that the German word "Ros," or rose actually should have been "Reis," or branch. This would correspond more closely to Isaiah 11:1.

The translation we know today, mostly from Theodore Baker, somehow or other combines both the Rose with the prophecy of Isaiah. An earlier translation by Catherine Winkworth (1869) remains closer to the Marian German origins of the text. Many of the German stanzas are also preserved online. Most American hymnals today only print these three.

Lo! how a Rose e'er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming,
As those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God's love aright,
She bore to us a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
Divisions everywhere;
True flesh, yet very God,
From sin and death Christ saves us,
And lightens every load.

German carol, 15th cent.
tr. Theodore Baker (st. 1 & 2), 1894
Harriet Krauth Spaeth (st. 3), 1875; alt.
Tune: ES IST EIN ROS' (7.6.7.6.6.7.6.)
Cologne, 1599; harm, Michael Praetorius, 1609

Most people probably visualize a red rose when singing this hymn, and another legend about the origins of this carol tells how a German monk from Trier was walking through the woods in winter and found a rose in bloom growing up through the snow. He brought the miraculous flower back and placed it on the altar to the Virgin Mary, and the carol was first written by someone from that monastery. The flower pictured above, however, is the Christmas rose, which does apparently bloom in winter.

This week I came upon another stanza translated by Harriet Spaeth, sometimes used between the second and third one here. Looking further, I see that her full translation, in five stanzas, and generally used in older Lutheran hymnals, begins Behold, a Branch is growing (no Rose for her!). Some of you may know this one; I'm sure I've never sung it before.

The shepherds heard the story
Proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory
Was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped
And in the manger they found him,
As angel heralds said.

I don't dislike it (the word sped falls in a fun place in the harmony), but I think we've had a lot of shepherds and angels this week, don't you?


One Year Ago: Elizabeth Rundle Charles