Aliens in This World

An ordinary Catholic and a science fiction and fantasy fan.

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Adventures in Hymnwriting



This one's really quixotic. It has long occurred to me that we don't have any hymns at my parish for our patron, St. Albert the Great. Furthermore, I'm cantoring for one of the Masses on his feast weekend. This actually pushed me into writing something to sing before Mass. The chances that I'll get to do it are fairly slim, but what the hey. It's worth showing the music director, anyway.



Btw, I did research for this. UD has English translations of some volumes of Al's De Animales and one of those "Classics of Western Spirituality" books which included his lecture on Dionysius' Mystical Theology. I also collected quotes from various sources which sounded cool. Unfortunately I didn't get much for the Holy Spirit verse down below -- ironic given that this was apparently one of Al's specialties. Verse two is at least within spitting distance of an actual prayer written by the man, and verse one is sorta munged together from several quotes I ran across.




Hymn for the Feast of St. Albert the Great
Lyrics: Maureen S. O'Brien, 11/5-6/03
(Verse 2 after St. Albert; all verses based
on quotes from him to some extent)
Music: ttto "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus"



Praise to You, Lord, great Creator.
All of Nature's as you planned
And in studying its workings,
We can see Your artist's hand.
Reason runs through all Creation;
Revelation's truth, the same;
While the skies proclaim Your glory
And the stones cry out Your name.



Hail, world's Savior, Word of the Father;
Hail, true Victim, Flesh that lives,
Really man and God entirely.
All of You to us You give.
Grafted in You, worthy off'rings
In Your temple may we be,
And, incarnate in Your Body,
Share in Your eternity.



Of beyond the cosmos' borders,
We must speak in borrowed words.
Of You and Your heavenly dwelling,
Eyes have not seen, ears not heard.
Of what's past our comprehension,
Holy Spirit, give us sight --
Of that Love between three Persons,
All one God, in reachless light!



What do you folks think -- is the theology okay? Is "reachless" an acceptable substitute for "inaccessible"?

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