Michael Herry wrote this song for the Year of the Family in the 1990s. After yesterday’s blockbuster this is a sweet singable song.
There are Marian uses and Eucharistic uses as well as the obvious use for gathering. There are extra verses for a recessional at the end of the sheet music.
You can hear music from the Dare to Dream collection, including this song, here and the sheet music is freely available from the Marists.
Just to prove BIAB can be used with subtlety:
1 We are family, as we gather in your name;
We are family, we are one yet not the same.
As we gather in our brokenness we are but blind and lame.
May we reach out to each other yet again.
2 In your family, may you open us to share;
In your family, make us bold enough to care;
May the spirit of a woman hast’ning to her cousin’s side,
So inspire us to reach out with our lives.
3 Living family, we know our God is real.
Living family, we’ve got nothing to conceal,
For in giving we receive, and in dying come to life,
Living fam’ly overcomes the darkest night.
4 So be with us Lord, as we journey on each day;
So be with us Lord. You’re the Truth, the Life, the Way;
As we gather ’round your table, may our lives and hearts be one
To be offered now together with your Son.
Rpt Verse 1
© 1993 Michael Herry