By Tim Claubaugh
October is traditionally one of the 2 months devoted to our Blessed Virgin Mary (the other month being May). During the month of October, we will sing a Marian Hymn at the weekend Masses to honor her.
This Sunday, one of the hymns that will be sung at most of the Masses is "Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly" (# 783). This Marian hymn tells of the relationship that Jesus had with His Mother. The tune (PLEADING SAVIOR) was written in 1830 and found in the "Chrstian Lyre" (a songbook or hymnal). The text was written by Roland F. Palmer (born in 1891) and the meter is 8 7 8 7 D. This hymn seems to have first appeared in "The Hymnal 1940" (Episcopal).
In his book, "Hymn Notes for Church Bulletins" Austin Lovelace writes about this hymn: "Based on an anonymous poem published in an Ilkeston, Derbyshire pamphlet c. 1914, and inspired by the need for a devotional hymn for the Feast of the Annunciation, Roland F. Palmer (born in London, but a Canadian resident since 1905) wrote this hymn to emphasize the spiritual rather more than the physical aspects of the Annunciation. Its theme is Mary and Jesus - her love for Him and His love for her."
1. Sing of Mary pure and lowly, Virgin mother undefiled,
Sing of God's own Son most holy, who became her little child.
Fairest child of fairest mother, God the Lord who came to earth,
Word made flesh, our very brother, takes our nature by his birth,
2. Sing of Jesus, son of Mary, in the home at Nazareth.
Toil and labor can not weary, Love enduring unto death.
Constant was the love he gave her, though he went forth from her side,
Forth to preach, and heal, and suffer, till on Calvary he died.
3. Glory be to God the Father; Glory be to God the Son;
Glory be to God the Spirit; Glory to the Three in One.
From the heart of blessed Mary, from all saints the song ascends,
And the church the strain reechoes unto earth's remotest ends.
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Actually, it first apeared in the 1938 Book of Common Praise of the Anglican Church of Canada. Fr. Palmer was an Anglican priest and the Canadian Superior of the Anglican religious order the Society of St. John the Evangelist (sometimes known as the Cowley Fathers from the site of the original house of the order at Cowley in England).
ReplyDeleteCatholic Hymnody: The Jeopardy of "Sing of Mary"
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Clue: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
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Clue: “And behold , you will conceive in your womb and bear a son...”
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Clue: “Word made flesh, our Very Brother, takes our nature by His birth.”
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"Sing of Mary" was composed in the early 1900's by an Anglican minister, Roland F. Palmer. It ultimately made its way into Catholic hymnals and into the Liturgy of the Hours (Feast of the Holy Family). Chalcedon established "nature" as "essence" (see Sempiternus Rex Christus, 25). The eternal Word does not take human nature at any other moment other than conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Comments?
You're also missing two verses.
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