I am on a voyage through the songs recommended for Australian Catholic Churches in the 1980s by their publication in the Catholic Worship Book. Many have been covered from other collections on this blog, so what I am finding are some that survived into CWB II with different settings, some English and Australian obscurities and venerable hymns that had their texts modernised for the late twentieth century.
This is one such text from James Montgomery (1771-1854) whose text has the dreaded “alt” next to his attribition in CWB. Here it is set to GONFALEN ROYAL, by Percy Carter Buck (1871-1947).
The chords are in TIS so I could make a backing – must have tired of fake organ when I was making this backing:
The words in Hymnary from Ancient and Modern are:
1 O Spirit of the living God,
in all the fullness of your grace,
wherever human feet have trod,
descend upon our fallen race.2 Give tongues of fire and hearts of love
to preach the reconciling word;
anoint with power from heaven above
whenever gospel truth is heard.3 Let darkness turn to radiant light,
confusion vanish from your path;
those who are weak inspire with might:
let mercy triumph over wrath!4 O Spirit of our God, prepare
the whole wide world the Lord to meet;
breathe out new life, like morning air,
till hearts of stone begin to beat.5 Baptize the nations; far and near
the triumphs of the cross record;
till Christ in glory shall appear
and every race declare him Lord! Amen.
The amended version in CWB goes thusly, amended either for the era or Catholicism:
1 O Spirit of the living God,
in all the fullness of your grace,
wherever human feet have trod,
descend on our rebellious race.2 Give tongues of fire and hearts of love
to preach the reconciling Word;
give power and unction from above
wherer e’er this blessed sound is heard.3 Be darkness, at your coming, light,
confusion, order in your path;
souls without strength inspire with might:
let mercy triumph over wrath.4 O Spirit of the Lord, prepare
a sinful world its God to meet;
and breathe abroad like morning air,
till hearts of stone begin to beat.5 Proclaim the Gospel far and wide
the triumphs of the cross record;
the name of Christ be glorified;
and ev’ery race’ry people call him Lord!
With these traditional hymn tunes, I have been remiss not to mention the usefulness of Small Church Music made by Clyde McLennan (1941-2022). The good work is being carried on and there are very nice organ backings for hymns like this one.