Beautiful song to remind us why we are Christian

hinault wrote: »

Terrible

My favourite Irish hymn and one I will have at my funeral

"Be Thou My Vision" (Old Irish: Rop tú mo baile or Rob tú mo bhoile) is a traditional hymn from Ireland. The most well known English version, with some minor variations, was translated by Eleanor Hull and published in 1912. In 1919, the lyrics were set to the tune of the Irish folk tune "Slane", to which the song is sung to this day, both in English and Irish. The song dates from at least the eighth century, though it has often been attributed to the sixth-century Irish Christian poet Saint Dallan.

I'm absolutely beyond all doubt a strong atheist, but when I was a schoolgirl I was a student of church musicians of international repute, and was recruited into the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, a training university for church choir conductors. There, now you know something about me hardly anyone else in the world does... I'm not completely sure I ever told my husband, as a matter of fact, not because I'm ashamed of it, but because it was thirty years ago and he's not very musical.

The most perfect of all choral works is the Cantique De Jean Racine of Gabriel Faure. John Rutter conducts this a little slower than I would, but he really understands the piece. The other Cambridge recording, conducted by Paarvo Järvi, suffers from being rushed, but really brings out the delicate dance-like sway of the orchestral accompaniment. Ironically the lyrics sort of call out atheists (as people "forgetful of Thy laws"), lol.

Here are both for you to compare, with lyrics below:




Verbe égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance,
Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux;
De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence:
Divin Sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux!

Répands sur nous le feu de ta grâce puissante;
Que tout l'enfer fuie au son de ta voix;
Dissipe le sommeil d'une âme languissante
Qui la conduit à l'oubli de tes lois!

Ô Christ! Sois favorable à ce peuple fidèle
Pour te bénir maintenant rassemblé.
Reçois les chants qu'il offre à ta gloire immortelle,
Et de tes dons qu'il retourne comblé!

looksee wrote: »

This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.

Though I have to admit I do not understand the last verse - 'cannot for less be told'?

Finally dawned on me that I knew the answer to this. It's because there's an old meaning of "to tell" that means "to count". I think it's genius really, you also "tell" the beads of a rosary like a bank "teller" or cashier with an abacus calculates, so the verse relates gold, ownership, touching (like touching the beads), valuation ("cannot for less"), and telling (counting, but also evokes "talk about" as in evangelism). The whole poem is full of such ingenious comparisons and references that require a bit of knowledge of alchemical and economic theory

The verse thus means, essentially, this:

1. The Philosopher's Stone (the "Elixir" of ancient alchemy) of Christianity, i.e. the mantra "For Thy sake", turns the profane into the sacred by heavenly "transmutation"... in fact some believe this is the real meaning of alchemy, and the chemical substances and processes sought after by people trying to turn literal lead into literal gold are really code for esoteric spiritual concepts involving the transmutation of spiritual "lead" to spiritual "gold" in a person's spirit (as a reader of Paracelsus I know it's more sophisticated and complex and not entirely without proposed practical application, but that will do for a first approximation). Approaching everything in the atmosphere of "all for God" lifts everything you are, do, and encounter into the realm of the Divine, giving it a high value above the merely mundane.

2. Only in the currency of the resulting transmuted "gold" (reality seen through the lens of "for God's sake" and conscientious prayer) can things pertaining to the Divine be properly valuated ("told"), and only in this currency can things of the Divine be legitimately "paid for" and obtained.

Look over the rest of the poem in this light and see if you don't agree with my reading.

Please indulge me ...in memory of my gorgeous brother in law and friend!