This song is one that the editors of Praise to God got from All Together Again. It is part of the 1970s story of evangelicals teaching Catholics to sing. I have vague recollections of this song from my Presbyterian upbringing, or I could be hallucinating.
Written by New Zealand songwriter Naida Hearn, it is a lovely, flowing prayer. My copy in Scripture in Song Book 2 is just one verse and since they hold the copyright, I suspect that is all there was – just a lovely half chanted chorus. I have found lots of different extra verses added in various fora and here, too, there is a verse two and three added without attribution.
Since compared to Scripture in Song, PTG has a different arrangement with a lowered the key and simplified the chords, I wonder if Nicolas Falzun himself was responsible for the extra verses, while he was rearranging.
Hymnary notes it’s presence in an awful lot of Hymn books and also mentions that the royalties from this hymn helped her get away from an unhappy marriage – I’m glad.
BIAB hates 6/8 unless it’s a jig, but I persevered and didn’t convert it to a waltz. I have written the text as in PTG, but stick an asterix over verse 2 and 3.
Jesus, Name above all names, Beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord Emmanuel, God is with us, Blessed Redeemer, living Word.
Jesus, equal to God in love, Made himself nothing, servant of all God’s people: Human like us, He became humbler, Even to dying, death on a cross.
Jesus, God raised him up, Gave him the highest name, made him the Lord all over The heavens and earth, and all the universe. To God be the glory, most loving Father.
Another song the Dominican fathers who assembled Praise to God got from All Together Again is this song by Linda Stassen.
This song has its own Wikipedia page because, amongst other reasons, it was used as a protest song in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. You probably have a copy somewhere because Hymnary notes it is an astonishing number of hymnals, but I haven’t seen it before.
The version in PTG has three stanzas with the lines repeated in call and response..
1 Sing alleluia to the Lord
2 Jesus is living in his church!
3 Spirit is with us today!
The version I have in TIS (732) has 5 verses in which “Sing alleluia, sing alleluia” is the third line each time and the first, second and fourth line of each stanza are:
1 Lift up your hearts to the Lord.
2 In Christ the world has been redeemed.
3 His resurrection sets us free.
4 Therefore we celebrate this feast.
5 Sing alleluia to the Lord.
The PTB version is copyright to the author and New Songs Ministries and the TIS version from Maranatha music. The Celebration Hymnal has only one verse repeated until exhaustion sets in. All rather confusing. Luckily, Mary at Godsongs knows about this song and provides what clarity is available.
It is a slow call and response praise song. The You Tube clips reveal even more different verses.
Rather than go through the Praise to God: Parish Hymn Book in a sensible fashion, I will look at the songs based on where the Dominican Fathers accessed the material, starting with what they found in the Lutheran publication All Together Again, which is astonishingly still available on CD and sheet music.
This won’t be all Australian music but it will reflect what was being played in Australian churches back then.
Unsurprisingly it is based on Psalm 89 and it still sounds great. There would have to be lots of substituting of something like “My Lord” for Yahweh these days.
Mary at Godsong is all over this song. It was written by Karen Barrie IHM. My copy in Scripture in Song Book 2 says she was in Wilmette, Illinois in those day. She turns up on a record by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I can’t find what happened to her after the seventies. So this song by an American Catholic nun was collected by Australian Lutherans and claimed back by the Dominicans.
There is a neat modulation from the verse to the chorus. The verse is not sure if is it in C or Bb but goes to G in the chorus – wild.
I found the lyrics on an old songbook on the net and also made a backing.
I have made a covenant with my chosen, Given my servant my word. I have made your name to last forever, Built to outlast all time. Refrain I will celebrate your love forever, Yahweh. Age on age, my words proclaim your love. For I claim that love is built to last forever, Founded firm your faithfulness.
Yahweh the assembly of those who love you Applaud your marvelous word. Who in the Skies can compare with Yahweh? Who can Rival Him?
Happy the people who learn to acclaim you. They rejoice in you light. You are our glory and you are our courage. Our hope belongs to you.
I have revealed my chosen servant And he can rely on me; Given him my love to last forever. He shall rise in my name.
He will call to me, “My Father! My God!” For I make him my firstborn son. I cannot take back my given promise. I’ve called him to shine like the sun.
I was waiting for our music meeting to post the selections for Lent. It was decided to have no song after communion with either silence or a chant. I’ll go silence for our masses. I was going to use a seasonal psalm, but since I will be switching from Saturday Vigil to Sunday mass at times during Lent, there isn’t the continuity to warrant it.
Entrance: Merciful God (Alonso)
Psalm 90 ( McKenna)
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Gifts: Ashes ( Conroy) AOV 2/16
Communion: Be Not Afraid (Dufford) AOV 1/114
Recessional: Praise To You O Christ (Farrell) AOV 1/28
I’m sure it’s not meant to comprehensive and it certainly isn’t wholly accurate – AOV was first published 1992, for example and there was the Sing Alleluia supplement to the AH in 1987, between it and TIS. At the time she wrote only AOV and CWB II were still in print, but CWB II is now unavailable and I believe AOV is digital only but I must ask, it may be print on demand.
I can’t agree with her unsubstantiated claim that AOV was only successful because it was cheap. What was actually cheap was staying with older hymnals and using public domain tunes or chant. I would suggest AOV was a success because it filled a need unmet by the institutional Catholic church in Australia, it was well curated by people with a musical sensibility who were prepared to do a mountain of work getting the selections and the style correct with no guarantee it would get them anywhere, and parishes who were prepared to pay for the pew hymnals and sheet music books. As I have commented already here, AOV Vol 1&2, provided enough usable hymns for most Australian parishes so that many have never moved beyond it. It did actually include some traditional hymns, despite Brandt’s protestations to the contrary.
She doesn’t mention the little blue loose leaf hymnal, the Living Worship Hymnal, from the Liturgical Commission in Brisbane, that was used widely. My second hand copy is heavily adapted with some pages lyrics only, some music and large jumps in the numbering system.
At Star of the Sea, George Town, Tasmania, before they used AOV they used the “green book”, which was in fact the Praise to God: Parish Hymn Book, published by the Dominican Hymnal Committee and edited by Nicolas Falzun OP. I have borrowed the accompaniment edition which is the revised edition with a supplement from 1990, only two years before the first publication of AOV. I haven’t been able to find copies second hand anywhere. If someone has copies they are looking to offload, let me know.
These pages let you know what is in the hymnal. Most were extracted from Catholic Worship Book 1, the Australian Hymn book, the Celebration Hymnal (available in pdf on the internet), Glory and Praise, and the New Living Parish Hymnal.
One thing about the New Living Parish Hymnal is the arrangements by John de Luca, who took some of the simple folk arrangements and added some sophistication, so I will get back to that, but I thought in the interim I would look at songs from the Praise to God collection that I haven’t covered here, that the Dominicans found from outside the main sources. There seems to be a lot of folk mass era pieces to go along with the traditional hymnody.
Much of the original version is just organ music, with only occasional guitar chords, but the supplement has a lot more chorded arrangements. It’s a bit of a hodge podge of styles really and some pieces are melody line only. In the hands of our late and much missed organist though it was quite enough.
On the plus side it was very well bound – our parish’s copy has had the cover replaced but the original stitched binding appears indestructable. There are are also instances when they have created their own arrangements, but mostly there is a lot of cut and pasting going on. You can understand when AOV arrived in 1992 with a consistent and usable style, that it made this collection look amateurish indeed.
I find it interesting that the Dominican Fathers, when assembling this collection and even into the supplement in 1990 were only just catching up with 1960s folk mass era. There was, however, a laudable attempt to collect Australian songwriters like Frank Andersen, Brian Boniwell, Leo Watt and Father Kevin Bates that were being used in parishes along with very early Trish Watts and Monica O’Brien songs. It is these songs that were outside the major sources that I wish to look at first from Praise to God.
This is the last Jubilee song I have found to date – please let me know if there are others.
The One Life Music team have another song aimed at primary school children and have provided the sheet music for free here.
This won’t need much reworking to use beyond the Jubilee, which is nice. I haven’t been able to find details of the songwriters involved in One Life Music songs, nor their copyright details.
My backing is a gentle shuffle.
1 We are pilgrims on a journey, Lord, journeying with you.
Be with us as we walk together, light our faith in you.
Chorus
Give us hope, O Lord, give us hope, O Lord,
God of Spirit, God of Grace.
Give us hope, O Lord, give us hope, O Lord,
Fan in us the flame of truth and faith.
2 We are pilgrims in a holy year, transform us, O Lord.
Guide us as we rediscover, hope within our world.
Chorus
Bridge
We arev pilgrims, we are pilgrims,
Pilgrims on a road of hope!
Yes, we are pilgrims, we are pilgrims,
Pilgrims on a road of hope!
3 We are called to bring your hope, O Lord, hope to all the world.
Fill us, use us, send us out as messengers of love.
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
