Tag: love

When sense is damaged, limiting perception – hymn – inspired by Mark 9: 30-37

When sense is damaged, limiting perception – inspired by Mark 9: 30-37


1 When sense is damaged, limiting perception,
God’s love will not diminish or betray,
for we are held in grace and loving kindness,
in pain, through grief and hardship, come what may.


2 The love of God defies our understanding,
God reaches to the depths of our despair
absorbing hate, discerning fear and anguish,
enabling, healing, wholeness and repair.


3 Our God is patient with our human frailty,
a strength in weakness when we slip or fall,
and so just as we are we come to worship
to offer back to God our all in all.


Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include
any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application.

Metre: 11.10.11.10

Tune: HIGHWOOD

Hymn inspired by Mark 7: 24-30 – She felt just like a ragged dog

She felt just like a ragged dog - inspired by Mark 7: 24-30

1	She felt just like a ragged dog 
	that scratched around for food, 
	denied, despised and kicked aside 
	and never any good.
	
2	Yet now she stood inside the door 
	and pleaded with this man, 
	for each taboo had little weight, 
	her grief had wider span.
	
3	Her child had need of healing help 
	and she would make Christ hear, 
	the urgency of anguished need 
	had overcome her fear.
	
4	And in that moment he would learn, 
	audacity would teach
	that human laws and well worn creeds 
	put no-one out of reach.
	
5	Compassion ruled and love compelled 
	to action on that day, 
	and Jesus' reach was broadened as 
	he learnt that grace held sway.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: CM
Tune: ST PETER (How sweet the name of Jesus sounds)

For Holocaust Memorial in a broken world – a hymn – The day will come….

The day will come, must come, and soon – Holocaust Remembrance in a broken world

1	The day will come, must come, and soon,
	when we will sing a song of joy
	with sisters, brothers, not like us,
	who share the image of one God.

2	Whatever name, whichever faith,
	at heart we share a common bond,
	a shared humanity in God,
	whose name and character is love.

3	That love will drive us to the day
	when every wall is broken down,
	when love and joy and song are one:
	that day will come, must come, and soon.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2001 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: LM
Tune: TALLIS’ CANON

Always looking for a sign – hymn inspired by John 6: 24 – 35

Always looking for a sign - John 6: 24-35

1	Always looking for a sign, 
	never seeing what is there, 
	people searching for some proof 
	fixing Jesus with a stare.
	
2	Standing lost and so bemused, 
	hoping for some broken bread, 
	Jesus meets their ignorance, 
	people needing to be fed.
	
3	Not some massive miracle, 
	simply trusting given grace, 
	this the message that they heard, 
	and they saw within his face.
	
4	And today that look survives, 
	all our needs are felt and met, 
	hope is spoken to each life, 
	love will live and not forget.  

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2012 Stainer and Bell Ltd. London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre: 7 7 7 7
Tune: BATTISHILL; EMMA

On a Galilean hillside – hymn inspired by Mark 6: 30-34

On a Galilean hillside – July 21st – Mark 6: 30 – 34

1          On a Galilean hillside
            stood a crowd with wondering eyes,
            captivated by the mystery,
            framed by mountain, sea and skies.

2          Jesus stood, and with compassion,
            met their gaze and understood
            depth of pain, and human anguish,
            evil challenging their good.

3          What he said defied their senses,
            challenged values, yet affirmed
            those whom life had spurned or battered,
            lifted them above the herd.

4          Now we stand, impassioned, waiting
            for a word to cure our ill;
            but he challenges complacence,
            love is ours to share or still.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2002 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 8 7 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: WRAYSBURY (Hymns & Psalms 141)