Author Archives: maddg

Also known as “Sweet Sacrament” this is a text by Frederick William Faber a C19 Anglican convert to Catholicism, set to John de Luca’s arrangement of a “German melody” he calls EUCHARIST but is better known as SWEET SACRAMENT sourced … Continue reading →

Richard Connolly and James Phillip McAuley do a lot of the heavy lifting for Australian hymns in this collection. This is another of their fine hymns, which I have covered already in gushing terms because it turned up in Gather … Continue reading →

The New Living Parish Hymn Book is a look back into what Australian Catholics were singing up to the 1980s, collated, occasionally altered and often arranged by the editor John de Luca. Unsurprisingly after all these years, many of the … Continue reading →

I somehow skipped this one – mea culpa. …and just to show that, despite my occasional bleating, not every traditional hymn in this book is a Protestant cuckoo in a Catholic nest, this one is very Catholic. The original Latin … Continue reading →

This is a text by Robert Bridges set to WERDE MUNTER, which is the famous tune by Johan Schop without Bach’s gorgeous fiddly bits I was expecting. The words are really not straightforward – they appear to try to express … Continue reading →

I did look at this one years ago, but it is this hymnal too, so I thought I would have another look. Set to LAND OF REST, a traditional American tune, the text is described here as a C16 “English … Continue reading →

This is Ray Repp’s “Into Your Hands We Commend Our Spirit, O Lord” which takes inspiration from Psalm 30 (31) for the refrain and Psalm 21 (22) for the verses. It is something to sing in times of distress when … Continue reading →

A Marian hymn from the esteemed team of James Phillip McAuley and Richard Connolly, so little chance of being confused with a Protestant hymn here. It is available to purchase at Willow, where there is a brief snippet and a … Continue reading →

I blogged this couple of years ago when it was added as a new song (!) to OCP’s Breaking Bread. It makes some sense in North America, but it shows how perverse we are in Australia that we could even … Continue reading →

I have blogged this before, but it is always a pleasure to hear the work of Australian poet James Phillip McAuley as set by Richard Connolly, this time,to his tune ARALUEN. The tune is inventive and the unexpected C natural … Continue reading →