Sunday's Hymn: Irish Hymn Writers

Last week I posted a hymn translated by Cecil Alexander, so this week I’ve decided to post one she wrote herself. Since it’s not long until Easter, I chose one that’s an Easter hymn.

He is Risen

Said the angel, “He is risen!”
Tell it out with joyful voice:
He has burst His three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice:
Death is conquered, we are free,
Christ has won the victory.

Come, ye sad and fearful hearted,
With glad smile and radiant brow!
Death’s long shadows have departed;
All our woes are over now,
Due to passion that He bore—
Sin and pain can vex no more.

Come, with high and holy hymning,
Chant our Lord’s triumphant day;
Not one darksome cloud is dimming
Yonder glorious morning ray,
Breaking over the purple east:
Brighter far our Easter feast.

He is risen, He is risen!
He has opened Heaven’s gate:
We are free from sin’s dark prison,
Risen to a holier state;
And a brighter Easter beam
On our longing eyes shall stream.

The tune by Joachim Neander might be familiar to you. You can hear it here.

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Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• We Sing the Praise of Him Who Died at Magic Statistics. This is another hymn from Irish hymn writer Thomas Kelly, whose biographical sketch you’ll find if you follow the hymn link. It was also, Scott tells us, the hymn used as the processional at Christ Church Cathedral in Whitehorse this morning.
• Bringing in the Sheaves at IMD 2.0.
• The Spirit of Jesus, from the Valley of Vision at Thirsty Theologian
• It Is Well With My Soul at joythruChrist. (We sang this hymn at church this morning, so this list contains two hymns sung at Whitehorse churches today.)
• Pour Out Thy Spirit From On High at John Dekker’s Journal
• Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove at The Happy Wonderer
• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God at Seasonings of the Heart
  

Have you posted a hymn for Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Saturday's Old Photo

Monday is oldest son’s birthday, so shouldn’t today’s old photo be one of him? This picture was taken sometime in the spring after he turned two.

 

He’d been crying before this photo was taken. Can you see the glisten of tears in his eyes? He hadn’t wanted to sit by himself away from the rest of his family. As long as he was close to his sister or a parent, he was a sedate child who didn’t require a lot of attention, but he did not do well off by himself until he was older.

 

He was a watcher first, and then a doer. No trial and error learning for this boy. He did a lot of sitting and watching older children play—he was not the sort of toddler who required chasing—and then one day he’d get up and do whatever it was he’d been watching the older kids do. When he was eighteen months old, he hopped on his older sister’s trike for the first time and pedaled off slowly, which was his normal speed for everything, but without any struggle to coordinate the pedaling.

 

He was never one to flit from one activity to another. The summer he was four, his goal was to catch a grasshopper. For hours at a time, for days that turned into weeks, he sneaked around the greenbelt behind our home, crouched over Hamburgler style, cupped hands turned downward and outstretched, stalking the elusive locust. He never did catch one, but t*The pursuit kept him busy for almost the whole summer.

 

He turns 28 on Monday. He still can hyperfocus when he decides he wants to accomplish something, but thankfully, his goals have changed over the years.

 

*Update: I’ve been corrected by the locust chaser himself, who says, “I’m pretty sure I caught some.” If he did, he didn’t show them to me.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: A Legend

I’m so glad other people are contributing to the Irish theme, because, although I still have a few ideas for Irish posts, my mind’s been on other things, like spring cleaning, a post on redemption that has taken way more work than I imagined, and the top secret project mentioned earlier.

So let me point you to The Upward Call, where Kim posts the story of the birth of Cú Chulainn. I love legends, but I don’t know the Irish ones, so this story is all new to me.

I hope to have the Saturday’s Old Photo post up later today; that is, if I can turn my attention to it. I’ve been sidetracked over the past couple of days by the redemption post, mainly with distilling all the material down to something that has the length and simplicity of a blog post, and juggling posts, jobs, or clovers is not one of my strengths.

Why don’t you help me out and post something Irish for the Everything’s Coming Up Irish theme? If you leave me your link in the comments or email it to me, I’ll link to it, and be forever grateful.