By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:09:18 +0000

It has been my practice for years during the passing of the sacrament to open the hymnbook and read the words of the hymns being sung that day. I read them without the musical rhythm and pacing that make them “songs” – but simply as poems, as I would read them in a classroom to a group of students. The meaning often jumps out in ways that simply are impossible to understand in their lyric form.

For example, look at the 3rd verse of Silent Night. If you type the words in separate lines for each individual thought or idea or phrase, it looks like this:

Silent Night!
Holy Night!
Son of God,
love’s pure light radiant beams from thy holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Translated into “normal” English, it might read:

Silent Night! Holy Night! Son of God, love’s pure light beams radiantly from thy holy face, and that pure light of love carries the dawn of redeeming grace.
Jesus, thou art Lord at thy birth.

I gained a MUCH deeper appreciation of this hymn and others when I started reading them as poems within the spirit of sacrament meeting.

By: Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:20:17 +0000

I like this phrase,

…remind us of what we are and in what age of the world we are living in and what our work is…

.
I will try to remember to think about the words we are singing. Sometimes it is not easy to let life stop for a few minutes and hear the words.

Comments on: We Sing Those Songs to Remind Us of What We Are

By: Ray

By: Jeff Johnson