Some of my favorite hymns are our lenten hymns, with their minor tunes and texts connecting us to the wilderness and the cross. The hymns we sing during the season of Lent can give us themes for prayer and reflection, as we seek to deepen our walk with Christ in preparation for our celebration of the Resurrection. As with all of my hymns, I hope these texts will help us deepen our prayer during this spiritual pilgrimage.
We Now Confess Our Sins to You
This hymn is about confessing our sins rightly. Stanza one acknowledges our need for confession for the ways in which we have sinned against God and one another, and stanza two acknowledges the sin that we have inherited from our ancestors. Once we have acknowledged our sin, we pray that God would help us see our neighbors through God’s own eyes, as people created in the image of God. From that revelation, we can seek to truly reconcile: to name our sin, make restitution where possible, and grow toward God’s will for us and all people. The text is set to Parry’s well known tune Repton, most commonly associated with “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.” It could also be set to Rest, the alternative tune for that text in The Hymnal 1982.
A note about composition: I wrote this hymn in June 2018 while staying at the seminary in Matanzas, Cuba. The Diocese of Cuba would rejoin The Episcopal Church in the following month, July 2018. I was convicted while staying there of the ways in which I was complicit in the suffering of the Cuban people and the Cuban church.
We Pray You in Your Mercy
“We Pray You in Your Mercy” is a hymn especially appropriate for Lent, or possibly Advent, when we acknowledge our sin and pray that ancient prayer of the Church, maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! Given its connection to the Eucharist in stanza three, this hymn is especially appropriate as an offertory or communion hymn. It can be set to the exceedingly familiar tune Aurelia (“The Church’s One Foundation). Another appropriate hymn tune would be King’s Lynn.
We pray you in your mercy
to hear our cry, O Lord;
we ask your hand of healing
to save our sin-sick world;
without you we will falter,
we cannot know the way;
O Judge of hearts and nations,
give us your grace, we pray.
By pride and greed and hatred
our world is torn apart;
there is no health within us,
no hope we might depart
from scornful confrontations,
all forms of bigotry;
we war at length; our vision
is fraught with scarcity.
Yet at your invitation
our longing eyes will see
the riches of your goodness
poured out abundantly;
in bread and wine now given,
we taste your promised feast,
the risen Christ among us,
our Lamb and great High Priest.
Creation groans in labor
expecting freedom’s shore;
our weak hearts long for justice,
for all to be restored;
without you we will falter,
we cannot know the way;
O Judge of hearts and nations,
give us your grace, we pray.
Words: Mark Nabors (b. 1990)
Music: Aurelia, S. S. Wesley (1810-1876)
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Storied Grace 