Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sunday Faith Blog

photo by Mr Z's daughter, Ms Z.

For The Beauty of the Earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies....Refrain

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light. Refrain

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight. Refrain

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild. Refrain

For Thy Church, that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love. Refrain

For the martyrs’ crown of light,
For Thy prophets’ eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors’ might,
For the lips of infancy. Refrain

For Thy virgins’ robes of snow,
For Thy maiden mother mild,
For Thyself, with hearts aglow,
Jesu, Victim undefiled. Refrain

For each perfect gift of Thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven. Refrain

I thought we could all use a reminder, I know I could, especially when our minds are full of all the very 'unbeautiful' things taking place right now in our world ......Remember the beauty of the earth.

Have a beautiful Sunday.........

z

14 comments:

Always On Watch said...

I'm up very early this morning, and the choir of songbirds is singing outside my office window. Quite the accompaniment to that wonderful music video (How I love the traditional hymns!).

Have a blessed Sunday.

Brooke said...

Wonderful picture. :)

I love the classics, too. I know I shouldn't, but when I go to services I actually consider going a bit late and sneaking in the back for the sermon, thus skipping the horribly repetitive and agonizingly long 'light rock' music style of most churches today.

Linda said...

100 years from now, the classic hymns of the faith will still be sung. The 'praise and worship' won't.

Chuck said...

Great pic. We are just starting to get some good color here in Michigan. Have a good day Z

BB-Idaho said...

Count me as preferring the old standard hymns as well.
Your 'Sunday Faith Blog' reminds me of quite long ago..WCCO radio in Mpls always had a hymn for the day at 6AM. I would sing along as a I drove to work!
I have been a fan of the English tenor Sir Harry Secombe
ever since....

Anonymous said...

Thanks Z, what a lovely chorale and a beautiful photo from Ms. Z.

How I love chorales, most of which are written and founded in faith.


Brooke, I can understand how you feel, skipping the rock music.

And for our youth, it's sad that the last bastion for beauty in music of faith, the church, offers not the depth of faith composers expressed when they wrote, but a poor substitute called rock.

Pris

psi bond said...

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find resources of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
— Rachel Carson

Z said...

BB, I can't listen to much of ABIDE WITH ME or songs like it since Mr. Z died...but thanks for that..what a wonderful voice.
I saw you'd written "Harry Secombe" and thought "Wasn't he one of the GOON SHOW?" I dated a Brit for a long time when I was very young and we listened to that here every Sunday morning! I just checked and I'm right....Boy, was he multi talented.

Always On Watch, check out the link BB left here, I remember you saying you love ABIDE WITH ME? You'll LOVE this rendition, he's brilliant.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this lovely arrangement of the hymn tune "Dix," written by Conrad Kocher (1786-1885) and arranged by William Henry Monk (1823-1889).

This gentle arrangement by Mack Willberg is beautifully crafted, and gently sung. The setting here is The Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, where some of the very finest music for Christian worship is regularly produced.

The choirs and instrumental groups at Brigham Young University rank among the best in the world.

The cherry blossoms are exquisite. It helps to remember that they will continue to bloom even if we lapse into a Marxist regime.

The Love and Truth that is God can never be defeated, even though it be hidden, misrepresented and otherwise defamed.

"If God be for us, who can be against us,"

We might want to put that the other way 'round too. If we be for God, what does it matter who comes against us?

Anonymous said...

WHOOPS!

Forgot to sign that last post. Sorry.

~ FreeThinke

WomanHonorThyself said...

God bless you Z..blessed Sunday to u as well!

Karen K said...

Lovely picture! And I remember singing that hymn at my old church once in awhile.

Opus #6 said...

I have to say this song sounds perfect even on a hectic Monday night. Thanks for posting it. Very enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

This arrangement is a fine antidote for the hectic, violent, frantic, highly stressed atmosphere of today's workaday world.

There are many such antidotes, if you know where to look for them. A good old-fashioned church with a genuine music program that features only bona fide sacred, liturgical music from our thousand year tradition is a great place to start.

Listen to the monks of Solennes sing Gregorian Chant, or a well trained choir sing motets by Palestrina. Works a helluva lot better thas Zoloft or Lunesta to calm you down, lift you up and put you in harmony with the music of the spheres.

~ FreeThinke