St. Patrick’s Breastplate is one of the great hymns of the church, sung especially for Saint Patrick’s Day, on Trinity Sunday, and at baptisms, confirmations, and ordinations. It is an Old Irish prayer of protection called a lorica, and the text is attributed to St. Patrick or his followers in early Celtic monasticism. Literally, lorica is…
Hymn Guide: Zadok the Priest
Zadok the Priest is a choral work by George Frideric Handel, and one of his four Coronation Anthems. It adapts the text of 1 Kings 1:38-40, which recounts the anointing of Solomon as the King of Israel, by Zadok the priest. Written for the crowning of George II in 1727, this anthem has been used in every British coronation…
Hymn Guide: The Angel Gabriel
“Gabriel’s Message,” also known by its first line “The Angel Gabriel from heaven came,” is a hymn often sung at Christmas or the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25. Originally a folk carol from the Basque Country in northern Spain and southern France, the English paraphrase was written in 1895 by Anglican priest Sabine Baring-Gould….
Hymn Guide: All Glory be to Christ
What happens when you sing a new set of lyrics to a tune everybody knows? Either the new lyrics fall flat, and you want to go back to the original words. Or, on a rare occasion, the new lyrics create an added dimension of meaning, not erasing the original but adding something new. Then everyone…
Hymn Guide: Mary, Did You Know?
Yes, Mary knew. Ok, it’s a bit more complicated than that. In this article we’ll consider “Mary Did You Know?,” exploring not only its history, but also seeking to answer the question the song asks. With lyrics by Mark Lowry in 1984, and music by Buddy Greene in 1991, “Mary Did You Know?” is a…
Hymn Guide: O Come O Come Emmanuel
Perhaps the most familiar hymn of Advent, O Come O Come Emmanuel has an ancient but obscure origin. Reference to the “O” verses, sometimes called the O Antiphons, are found in Latin literature as early as the 5th century. A set of Old English poems, written around 800 AD, expand upon the themes of each verse,…
Hymn Guide: Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
A beloved hymn for Thanksgiving, “Come, ye thankful people, come” is also a fitting hymn for Advent. It presents a rare combination of thanks and judgment, drawing singers into reverent awe before the Almighty. Anglican priest Henry Alford wrote the hymn in 1844 and published it under the heading, “After Harvest.” At the time Alford…
Hymn Guide: It Is Well
“It is well” is a hymn of sorrow and faith, written by a father grappling with natural disaster and death. Horatio Spafford was a Chicago lawyer and friend of evangelist Dwight Moody. In 1873, to visit Moody’s preaching campaign in England, he planned a trip for his family to Europe, and sent his wife Anna…
Hymn Guide: See the Conqueror (ft. an exclusive video with Jenny & Tyler!)
“See the Conqueror” is a wonderful hymn on the Ascension of Christ. It is not widely known, but we hope to make it more popular, with God’s help! It was written by a 19th-century English bishop named Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1855), the nephew of poet William Wordsworth. Bishop Wordsworth authored many books, including The Holy Year, a book…
Hymn Guide: Ah, Holy Jesus
One of our deeply moving Holy Week hymns is “Ah, holy Jesus.” The text was written by Johann Heerman, a 17th century Lutheran pastor and poet, as a translation and paraphrase of a medieval Latin devotion. Anglican poet Robert Bridges, in turn, translated the hymn to English, reducing it from fourteen stanzas to five. Bridges…
