It is made more clear here than in AOV, that the refrain comes after singing verses one and two together, three and four together, and five and six together.

Here is an appreciation of Lucien Deiss. Is this one still sung anywhere?

The text is very prosaic, so I suppose it sounded better in French. It has many changes in time signature and the tune is not consistent over the verses and yet somehow was a much loved hymn.

The sheet music is still available at OCP after all these years and the text is here.

That’s quite odd that this is a WLP/GIA copyright but is available at OCP, presumably because it is in Breaking Bread I suppose. Oh, I see it is available at GIA as well. What I took to be a sign of the end times turned out to be not so.

I made a new backing:

English

French

The tune, ANTIOCH, is by George Frederick Handel and in this hymnal is the usual arrangement by Lowell Mason. The text is by Isaac Watts with liberal helpings of “alt” over the years, but you know them anyway.

1. Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
   Let earth receive her King;
   Let ev’ry heart prepare him room,
   And heav’n and nature sing.(x3)
2. Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
   Let all our songs employ,
   While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,
   Repeat the sounding joy.(x3)
3. He rules the world with truth and grace,
   And makes the nations prove
   The glories of his righteousness,
   And wonders of his love.(x3)

Overdone?

This is a Pentecost, or Whitsunday if you like, song from an ancient Latin hymn, possibly C4 by St Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, as translated by John Ellerton and Fenton John Hort. The text below is from this hymnal but I have seen many variations out there.

It is here set to THE CALL by Ralph Vaughan Williams as adapted by E. Harold Greer.

Hymnary notes the text set to pretty much everything except this tune. Nonetheless, I got chords from Hymnary to make a BIAB backing. I made it rather slow – I hope that is how it is meant to sound.

1 Joy because the circling year
Brings our day of blessings here,
Day when first the light divine
On the Church began to shine.

2 Like to quivering tongues of flame
Onto each the Spirit came,
Tongues, that each might hear their call,
Fire, that love might burn in all.

3 So the wondrous works of God
Wondrously were spread abroad;
Every tribe’s familiar tone
Made the glorious marvel known.

4 Hardened scoffers vainly jeered;
Listening strangers heard and feared,
Knew the prophet’s word fulfilled,
Owned the work which God had willed.

5 Still your Spirit’s fullness, Lord,
On your waiting Church be poured;
Grant our burdened heart release;
Grant us your abiding peace.

I can’t find the hymn with this setting.

Right tune, different text:

The text is by Ronald Knox who only died in 1957, but the text feels older. That may come from him being another Anglican convert to Catholicism and translating the Vulgate in your spare time. He also wrote detective fiction! There is a little “alt” going on here too.

The tune is John de Luca’s expanded version of a “French Noel” A MINUIT FUT FAIT UN REVEIL, which is from a more usual Christmas story.

It looks like I made up some basic chords for a backing:

1 Joseph, the Scriptures love to trace
The glories of thy kingly line;
Yet no succession of thy race,
No long posterity was thine –
Of her the everlasting spouse
Who must a Virgin ever be,
The faithful ruler of his house
Who owns no fatherhood in thee.

2 There were no songs of old renown,
no crowds to greet you when you came,
Two wanderers, to your native town,
That lost inheritance to claim;
But hard the hearts, and cold the air,
And mean the lodging where you lay,
And long the exile you must bear
Till upstart Herod’s dying day.

3 And though thy son was God indeed,
Over that home no angels sang,
But still through years of toil and need,
Hammer and mallet bravely rang;
And surely ’twas a gracious thing
When standing at his father’s knee,
The world’s great craftsman and its King
Not king but craftsman learned to be.

4 Joseph, the Church of God protect;
Her priests with holy care endow;
Shield of the faithful souls elect,
Hope of the fatherless be thou;
And, when our parting spirits cling
To earthly joys that cannot bide,
Make Naz’reth in our homes,
And bring Jesus and Mary to our side.

Where do you turn to for obscure hymns?

LiturgyShare of course:

This starts out as the same tune but becomes something better:

This is a wild instrumental and I suspect reveals that de Luca added two bars in the middle:

It is a very Lenten song. Most versions have three verses, the fourth noted here is consoling but somewhat undercuts the whole thrust of the song.

The music is, again traditional called LONESOME VALLEY.

1 Jesus walked this lonesome valley;
He had to walk it by himself.
Oh, nobody else could walk it for him;
He had to walk it by himself.

2 We must walk this lonesome valley;
We have to walk it by ourselves.
Oh, nobody else can walk it for us;
We have to walk it by ourselves.

3 You must go and stand your trial;
You have to stand it by yourself.
Oh, nobody else can stand it for you;
You have to stand it by yourself.

4 Though you walk this lonely valley,
And seem to stand all by yourself,
Yet someone else is always near you:
Our brother Jesus stands himself!

Of course you can just completely rewrite the song:

There is a version with a text by Jack Schrader that cleverly goes from Lent all through Easter in four stanzas, which is available at Hope Publishing:

1 Jesus walked this lonesome valley,
he had to walk it by himself;
O, nobody else could walk it for him,
he had to walk it by himself.

2 Jesus prayed for his disciples;
he prayed alone for you and me.
O, nobody else could bear such sorrow;
he prayed alone for you and me.

3 Jesus died on Calvary's mountain;
he died alone for you and me.
O, nobody else could die for sinners;
he had to die for you and me.

4 Jesus rose from death's dark prison;
he lives again for you and me.
O, nobody else could bring us victory;
he is alive to set us free.

… and then there’s the version from the movie:

This text is often sung to GONFALEN ROYAL and ETON, but de Luca does a nice job.

This is a good example of how much alteration is going on with these texts and how it makes finding hymns from their first line difficult.

Hymnary has the words from Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New, although the first line was apparently originally written as “Brother, who on Thy heart didst bear” :

1 Lord Christ, who on thy heart didst bear
the burden of our shame and sin,
and now on high dost stoop to share
the fight without, the fear within:

2 Thy patience cannot know defeat,
thy pity will not be denied,
thy loving-kindness still is great,
thy tender mercies still abide.

3 O brother Man, for this we pray,
thou brother Man and sovereign Lord,
that we thy brethren, day by day
may follow thee and keep thy word.

4 That we may care, as thou hast cared,
for sick and lame, for deaf and blind,
and freely share, as thou hast shared,
in all the woes of humankind.

5 That ours may be the holy task
to help and bless, to heal and save;
this is the happiness we ask,
and this the service that we crave.

The Australian Hymn Book goes back to something like the original opening line, but modernises the words otherwise and has:

1 Brother, you on your heart did bear
the burden of our shame and sin,
and even now you stoop to share
the fight without, the fear within;

2 Your patience cannot know defeat,
your pity will not be denied,
your loving-kindness is so sweet,
your tender mercies are so wide.

3 Our brother Man, for this we pray,
our brother Man and sovereign Lord,
that we, your people, day by day
may follow you and keep your word.

4 That we may care, as you have cared,
for sick and lame and maimed and blind,
and freely share, as you have shared,
in all the woe of all mankind.

5 So in your mercy make us wise,
and lead us in the ways of love,
until, at last, our wondering eyes
look on your glorious face above.

It looks like de Luca took that version and added a little “alt” of his own, but unfortunately didn’t fix the bad work on the second verse:

1 Jesus our brother, you did bear
the burden of our shame and sin,
and even now you stoop to share
the fight without, the fear within;

2 Your patience cannot know defeat,
your pity will not be denied,
your loving-kindness is so sweet,
your tender mercies are so wide.

3 Our brother Man, for this we pray,
our brother Man and sovereign Lord,
that we, your people, day by day
may follow you and keep your word.

4 Make us to care, as you have cared,
for sick and lame and maimed and blind,
and freely share, as you have shared,
in all the woe of all mankind.

5 So in your mercy make us wise,
and lead us in the ways of love,
until, at last, our wondering eyes
look on your glorious face above.

So that’s four different opening lines at least – there oughta be a law against it.

It could be a slow burn praise and worship song, but their version takes it pretty easy. If you are queasy about singing the voice of God it might not be for you, but it is from John 15 if that helps. The You Tube index suggests it is very popular.

OCP sell the sheet music and provide the text in their preview.

I let it build in my backing:

The text is in the preview at OCP where you can purchase the sheet music.

It’s such a great lyric I made another backing for it:

It can purchased at OCP, where they also provide the text in their preview.

So that’s Breaking Bread for 2027.

Lots of liturgically useful, well written songs that are mostly all in the one tonal idiom – quiet, reflective and not particularly uplifting. They are all following such good hymn writing rules that they have a sameness that could be relieved by a little rule breaking. Still I have to say they are all worthy hymns by excellent song writers.

The text says more than usual about the implications of the mystery of the Trinity, which is nice for a change. The swell into the verse is a chance for great praise.

Usefully, you could imagine using this song at liturgies other than Trinity Sunday with themes of creation, praise, gathering and Adoration found in the verses.

So buy the sheet music at OCP and read the text they provide.