Tag: Mary

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day Hymns


CHRISTMAS DAY

1	Almighty God has done great things,

	an angel proffers stunning news,

	the news of human hope he brings,

	her baby heaven and earth shall fuse;

	and she will give her life for that,

	O, Mary, sing magnificat.



2	A mother and her unborn child,

	a man who ought to let her go

	to save his face, stay undefiled,

	as love and duty taunt and flow;

	and Joseph will consider that

	as Mary sings magnificat.



3	And all the greatness of a God,

	distilled to love, sets captives free,

	a single liberating Word:

	those born in darkness now can see;

	as human power considers that

	let Mary sing magnificat.



Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2001 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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 8 8 8 8 8 Tune: MELITA 



                   Incarnation © Andrew Pratt



CHRISTMAS DAY


1	We see the eyes of Mary shine,
	for all the pain of birth is past.
	She cradles Jesus in her arms,
	her time of joy is here at last.

2	We look on Joseph's roughened hands,
	his eyes are filled with tender joy
	he gently reaches for the child, 
	this little scrap, this baby boy.
	
3	And can they know? And could they guess 
	at love's responsibility, 
	that hurt would mingle with the joy 
	of human possibility?

4	But on this night a single star 
	is just enough to signal grace: 
	a child is born in Bethlehe
	and offered for the human race. 


Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Singing the Faith 219
Words © 2008 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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: TRURO

Kyries for Holy Innocents – Herod’s high and mighty stand

1	Herod's high and mighty stand
	Showed the power at his command,
	Slaughtered children in the land:
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us. 

2	Mary wept, she understood,
	Wept as every mother should,
	Ramah's echo, death to good:
	Chorus 

3	Surely force has had its day,
	Brutish whim and power's display;
	Yet our actions hurt betray:
	Chorus 

4	Seen on every paper's page,
	Words of hate and fists of rage,
	Signs of greed in every age:
	Chorus 

5	Anger still inflicts the pain,
	Each excuse is seen as lame,
	Yet again we bear the shame:
	Chorus 

6	Till through this and every time
	People cease from heinous crime,
	Till with peace their actions rhyme:
	Chorus 

VERSION IN SONGS FOR A NEW MILLENIUM (7 7 7 D and refrain) 

1	Herod's high and mighty stand
	Showed the power at his command,
	Slaughtered children in the land:
	Mary wept, she understood,
	Wept as every mother should,
	Ramah's echo, death to good:
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us. 

2	Surely force has had its day,
	Brutish whim and power's display;
	Yet our actions truth betray:
	Seen on every paper's page,
	Words of hate and fists of rage,
	Signs of greed in every age:
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us. 

3	Anger still inflicts the pain,
	Each excuse is seen as lame,
	Yet again we bear the shame:
	Till through this and every time
	People cease from heinous crime,
	Till with peace their actions rhyme:
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy, 
	Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)	
From: Whatever name creed, No.28 (1999) & Songs for the new millennium.
Words © 1999, 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.
Tune: HOLY INNOCENTS (Ian Sharp) Whatever name creed, No.28

Advent 3 Magnificat has come to stay – inspired by the Magnificat

A topsy, turvy, upturned world, 
where values are distorted, 
the first is last and last is first 
with everything contorted.
The rich are begging at the door 
while ones they were despising
are given charge of Godly wealth, 
in stature they are rising.

Magnificat has come to stay,
the proud have been extinguished; 
the humble poor are lifted high, 
their poverty relinquished. 
The reign of God has come to pass 
rebutting our world's choices, 
each one that we would count as last 
within this time rejoices.

And will we ever find a place 
with pride and wealth rejected, 
or will hypocrisy deny 
our need to be accepted? 
The choice is ours, the crisis dawns, 
the time to make decisions, 
to stand with God or walk alone 
within this world's divisions.

Andrew Pratt Words © 2011 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: 8.7.6.7 D
Tune: CONSTANCE

Young Mary

1     	Young Mary, survivor, alone in the world, 
	for that’s how it seemed to the mind of this girl. 
	An angel had promised the birth of a son, 
	but Mary just wanted to hide or to run. 

2     	Much less of a blessing, less joy to the earth, 
	the sound to her ears of the promise of birth; 
	unmarried, herself little more than a child, 
	the thoughts in her mind were horrendous, ran wild. 

3     	Would Joseph abandon her now in her need? 
	Would he share the faith of our latter-day creed? 
	More likely to leave her alone to her end, 
	now wounded by bias, no longer her friend. 

4     	That God could conceive to abandon, mistreat: 
	a sordid beginning, a birth on the street; 
	that Mary should taste wrath at such a young age; 
	the cross threw its shadow across the world’s stage. 

5     	Before she could magnify God in her song, 
	she had to confront all the world in its wrong, 
	the things in her mind she could not reconcile, 
	the world’s misconceptions and Herod’s cruel guile. 

6     	We sing of a manger, we tell of a birth, 
	our sentiment colours its moment and worth: 
	as deity seems to collude with the state 
	sing glory, sing Mary… before it’s too late. 

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 
© 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd. 
11 11 11 11

A tension stalked the stage – another Advent/Christmas hymn

The gospel reading of the Fourth Sunday in Advent tells of the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth and Mary’s prophetic song which we know as the Magnificat (Luke 1: 39-55). This Sunday’s hymn reaches further than this. It has for its background an occupied country, a census involving a journey and the song of a young woman which anticipates the birth of a child who will bring radical challenge and change to the world – if only we would hear and follow him…

A tension stalked the stage, 
an occupying force, 
and in this context Mary sang. 
The world could alter course.
Once humbled by her God, 
demeaned, yet she felt blessed, 
her life now mingled joy and pain, 
from now she'd never rest.

And those in every age 
are challenged by her song, 
the paupers free to pray again - 
for those who did them wrong;
while princes are appalled,
for those who once held power 
will find their status racked right down, 
and that within this hour.

For where injustice meets 
with worship lived and prayed, 
the social order swings around, 
the powerful are dismayed;
and that includes us all, 
our power is sapped away, 
while genuine humility 
at last will have its day.

Andrew E Pratt 
Words © 2015 © 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: DSM
Tune: LEOMINSTER