Tag: new year hymn

When the weeping of the nations – a hymn at the turning of the year

1	 When the weeping of the nations 
	fills our hearts with holy dread, 
	when a devastated city 
	cannot bury all its dead, 
	God is in the conflagration, 
	crying where our children bled.
 
2	 Dust will settle on the dying 
	cradled in a mother’s arms, 
	fearful faces meet the camera 
	knowing human hatred harms, 
	knowing only humane kindness 
	brings the peace that heals, disarms.
 
3	 God remove our warring blindness, 
	give us grace that we might see 
	through the mists of mortal malice 
	how we fuel life’s agony, 
	how inaction, sullen silence,
	marks our own complicity.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 Stainer and Bell Ltd. 
8 7 8 7 8 7

Tunes: GRAFTON; PICARDY

Looking backwards, looking forwards – New Year Hymn

1          What clutter has the last year left,
            what loving, laughing, sighing;
            what things of worth to hold and keep,
            what grace that we’re denying;

2          what battered fragments of the past,
            things best left un-remembered,
            what joys that we had once denied,
            by hatred we’ve dismembered?

3          Great God, amid the light of Christ,
            bring a discerning spirit,
            that we might hold the things of worth
            that others might inherit.

4          The things that we should treasure most,
            God, sharpen in our vision,
            that we might finely tune your love
            to fight against division.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
8 7 8 7
DOMINUS REGIT ME