Vernacular Hymns
...should sound more like this:
The name of the piece is "Sweet Sacrament Divine," and it is apparently a traditional Irish hymn. Just goes to show you that we (and by we I especially mean Oregon Catholic Press) could learn quite a many things from the Irish.
File Under: Catholic_Stuff, Art/Media
Sweet Sacrament Divine,
Hid in Thy earthly home;
Lo! round Thy lowly shrine,
With suppliant hearts we come.
Jesus to thee our voice we raise
In songs of love and heart-felt praise
Sweet Sacrament Divine.
Sweet Sacrament Divine.
Sweet Sacrament of Peace,
Dear home of every heart,
Where restless yearnings cease,
And sorrows all depart.
Here in Thine ear, all trustfully,
We tell our tale of misery,
Sweet Sacrament of Peace.
Sweet Sacrament of Peace.
The name of the piece is "Sweet Sacrament Divine," and it is apparently a traditional Irish hymn. Just goes to show you that we (and by we I especially mean Oregon Catholic Press) could learn quite a many things from the Irish.
File Under: Catholic_Stuff, Art/Media
posted by Paul | 8:37 PM
3 Comments:
Paul,
I have been visiting (and enjoying) the blog for a couple of weeks.
Thanks for bringing back some memories by posting those lyrics. We used to sing that hymn when I was a kid in Ohio in the early 1960s. I don't know the composer of the music, but the verses were written by Francis Stanfield (1835-1914). I'm not certain of this, but I think that Stanfield was born in London and may have been an Anglican, but became a Catholic priest. His hymns are loved in Ireland, at least one having been translated into Gaelic.
"Sweet Sacrament Divine" has an extremely beautiful melody. You can hear an outstanding (3-minutes+) rendering of it here, if you can play a ".ram" (RealAudio) file:
http://www.valley-entertainment.com/real_audio/15022_TRK2.ram
Here are the words to verses 3 and 4:
Sweet Sacrament of rest, ark from the ocean's roar,
Within thy shelter blest soon may we reach the shore.
Save us, for still the tempest raves,
Save, lest we sink beneath the waves,
Sweet Sacrament of rest, sweet Sacrament of rest.
Sweet Sacrament divine, Earth's light and jubilee,
In thy far depths doth shine the Godhead's majesty.
Sweet light, so shine on us, we pray
That earthly joys may fade away:
Sweet Sacrament divine, sweet Sacrament divine.
I found the .RAM and the lyrics with Google searches. This is one of a few old hymns that can be played with RealPlayer from this page:
http://www.valley-entertainment.com/Artists/Faith_of_Our_Fathers/index.html
From that same page, here is another beautiful oldie, "Sweet Heart of Jesus" -- http://www.valley-entertainment.com/real_audio/15020_TRK2.ram
I found the lyrics elsewhere, thou I don't know the composer or lyricist:
Sweet Heart of Jesus, font of love and mercy
Today we come, Thy blessing to implore.
Oh touch our hearts, so cold and so ungrateful
And make them Lord, Thine own for evermore.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, we implore,
Oh, make us love Thee more and more.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, make us pure and gentle
And teach us how to do Thy blessed will;
To follow close the print of Thy dear footsteps
And when we fall, Sweet Heart, oh, love us still.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, we implore,
Oh, make us love Thee more and more.
Sweet Heart of Jesus we implore,
Oh make us love Thee more and more,
More and more.
God bless you.
John
John, thank you so much for your kind words and for the links. What beautiful hymns!
Just goes to show you that we (and by we I especially mean Oregon Catholic Press) could learn quite a many things from the Irish/
Truer words have never been spoken.
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