Day 23 of Quotes: Sing, Sing, All Earth!

Ask anyone from any church what they've missed most about worship during the Covid crisis this year and I'm willing to bet that 9 out of 10 of them say communal singing.

There's something really wonderful about joining around the crib clutching Christingles and singing "Away In A Manger", or belting out the last - "forbidden" - verse of "O Come All Ye Faithful" at the end of Midnight Mass.

Here are a few lines from just some of the wonderful carols which we will be singing at home and in our hearts during the next couple of days.

Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,

The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

(O Little Town of Bethlehem - Phillips Brooks)

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,

Come peasant, king, to own Him.

(What Child Is This? - William Chatterton Dix)

Radiance beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace.

(Silent Night - Joseph Mohr)

Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing;

O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.

(It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Edmund Hamilton Sears)

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

(O Holy Night - John Sullivan Dwight)

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

(Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - R.H.)

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail th'incarnate Deity!

(Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - Charles Wesley)

But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

(In the Bleak Midwinter - Christina Rossetti)

Mine are riches, from your poverty,
From your innocence, eternity;
Mine, forgiveness by your death for me,
Child of sorrow for my joy.

(Calypso Carol - Michael Perry)

I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky

And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

(Away In A Manger)

Ye who sang creation's story

Now proclaim the Messiah's birth!

(Angels From the Realms of Glory - James Montgomery)

Lo, he slumbers in a manger,

Where the horned oxen fed.

(Watts' Cradle Song - Isaac Watts)

Let men their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy.

(Joy to the World - Isaac Watts)

Why does the chilling winter's morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn?

(What Sweeter Music? - Robert Herrick)

Ye who now will bless the poor,

Shall yourselves find blessing.

(Good King Wenceslas - John Mason Neale)

When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.

(Sussex Carol - Luke Wadding)

Glorious now behold Him arise,

King and God and Sacrifice!

(We Three Kings - John Henry Hopkins)

Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

(Bethlehem Down - Bruce Blunt)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,

How sturdy God has made thee!

Thou bidst us all place faithfully

Our trust in God unchangingly.

(O Christmas Tree)

Sacred infant, all divine
What a tender love was thine
Thus to come from highest bliss
Down to such a world as this'

(See, Amid the Winter's Snow - Edward Caswell)

Clear shining light, Mary's Child,

your face lights up our way;

light of the world, Mary's Child,

dawn on our darkened day.

(Born In The Night - Geoffrey Ainger)

O come Thou dayspring, come and cheer 

Our spirits by Thine advent here:

Disperse the gloomy shades of night 

And pierce the clouds and bring us light.

(O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)

and, of course...

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee!

Born this happy morning!

Jesus to Thee be glory given!

Word of the Father,

Now in flesh appearing. 

(O Come, All Ye Faithful - Frederick Oakeley after John Francis Wade)

As this is my last blog for 2020, I'll take this opportunity to wish you a very merry Christmas and a new year which heralds an infinitely better year than 2020 has been for so many!