Above:  Icon of the Triumphal Entry

Image in the Public Domain

Text (1898) by William Henry Draper (1855-1933)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), United Church of Christ

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Lord, through this holy week of our salvation

Which thou hast won for us who went astray,

In all the conflict of thy sore temptation

We would continue with thee day by day.

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We would not leave thee, though our week endurance

Make us unworthy here to take our part;

Yet give us strength to trust the sweet assurance

That thou, O Lord, art greater than our heart.

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Along that sacred way where thou art leading,

Which thou didst take to save our souls from loss,

Let us go also, till we see thee pleading

In all prevailing prayer upon thy cross.

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Until thou see thy bitter travail’s ending,

The world redeemed, the will of God complete,

And, to thy Father’s hands thy soul commending,

Thou lay the work he gave thee at his feet.

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Above:  Light and Shadows

Image Source = intothewoods29

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Light_on_Leaves,_Muir_Forest.JPG)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words by Frances M. Owen (1842-1883), about whom I can find no other information

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1.  Lighten the darkness of our life’s long night,

Through which we blindly stumble to the day.

Shadows mislead us; Father, send thy light

To set our footsteps in the homeward way.

2.  Lighten the darkness of our self-conceit,

The subtle darkness that we love so well,

Which shrouds the path of wisdom from our feet,

And lulls our spirits with its baneful spell.

3.  Lighten our darkness when we bow the knee

To all the gods we ignorantly make

And worship, dreaming that we worship thee,

Till clearer light our slumbering souls awake.

4.  Lighten our darkness when we fail at last,

And in the midnight lay us down to die;

We trust to find thee when the night is past,

And daylight breaks across the morning sky.

Above:  Dedication of All Saints’ Chapel, St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, October 31, 2010

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words (1920) by George W. Briggs (1875-1959), a priest of The Church of England

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1.  For the brave of every race,

All who served and fell on sleep,

Whose forgotten resting place

Rolling years have buried deep,

Brotherhood and sisterhood

Of earth’s age-long chivalry,

Source and giver of all good,

Lord, we praise, we worship thee.

2.  Prince and peasant, bond and free,

Warriors wielding freedom’s sword,

Bold adventurers on the sea,

Faithful stewards of the word,

Toilers in the mine and mill,

Toilers at the furnace blaze,

Long forgotten, living still,

All thy servants tell thy praise.

3.  Valiantly o’er sea and land

Trod they the untrodden way,

True and faithful to command,

Swift and fearless to obey;

Strong in heart and hand and brain,

Strong, yet batting for the weak,

Recked they not of their own gain,

Their own safety scorned to seek.

4.  Evermore their life abides

Who have lived t do thy will;

High above the restless tides

Stands their city on the hill;

Lord and light of every age,

By thy same sure counsel led,

Heirs of their great heritage,

In their footsteps we will trod.

Above:  Dedication of All Saints’ Chapel, St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, October 31, 2010

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words (1912) by William George Tarrant (1853-1928), an English Unitarian minister; text based on Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 44:1-7

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1.  Now praise we great and famous men,

The fathers named in story;

And praise the Lord, who now as then

Reveals in man his glory.

2.  Praise we the brave and strong,

Who graced their generation,

Who helped the right, and fought the wrong,

And made our folk a nation.

3.  Praise we the great of heart and mind,

The singers sweetly gifted,

Whose music like a mighty wind

The souls of men uplifted.

4.  Praise we the peaceful men of skill,

Who builded homes of beauty,

And, rich in art, made richer still

The brotherhood of duty.

Above:  Wedding Rings

Image Source = Jeff Belmonte from Cuiaba, Brazil

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wedding_rings.jpg)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words (1883), by Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858-1932), wife a priest of The Church of England; both converted to Roman Catholicism in 1919

http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/feast-of-dorothy-frances-blomfield-gurney-june-14/

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1.  O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,

Lowly we kneel in prayer before thy throne,

That theirs be the love which knows no ending,

Whom thou forevermore dost join in one.

2.  O perfect Life, be thou their full assurance

Of tender charity and steadfast faith,

Of patient hope, and quiet, brave endurance,

With childlike trust that fears nor pain nor death.

3.  Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow;

Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,

And to life’s day the glorious unknown morrow

That dawns upon eternal love and death.

Above:  St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Good Friday, April 6, 2012

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/GoodFridayLiturgyStPaulS#5731036241979569762)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words (published in 1904) by Ada R. Greenaway (1861-1937)

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1.  O word of pity, for our pardon pleading,

Breathed in the hour of loneliness and pain;

O voice, which, through the ages interceding,

Calls us to fellowship with God again;

2.  O word of comfort, through the silence stealing,

As the dread act of sacrifice began;

O infinite compassion, still revealing

The infinite forgiveness won for man;

O word of hope, to raise us nearer heaven,

When courage fails us, and when faith is dim;

The souls for whom Christ prays to Christ are given,

To find their pardon and their joy in him.

4.  O Intercessor, who art ever living

To plead for dying souls that they may live,

Teach us to know our sin which needs forgiving,

Teach us to know the love which can forgive.

Above:  Kids4Peace, Atlanta, Georgia, July 14, 2012

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/Kids4PeaceAtlantaAbrahamSTent#5765866514645993250)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words by Father F. Bland Tucker (1895-1984), Episcopal priest

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1.  Our Father, by whose name

All fatherhood is known,

Who dost in love proclaim

Each family thine own,

Bless thou all parents, guarding well,

With constant love as sentinel,

The homes in which thy people dwell.

2.  O Christ, thyself a child

Within an earthly home,

With heart still undefiled,

Thou didst to manhood come;

Our children bless, in every place,

That they may all behold thy face,

And knowing thee may grow in grace.

3.  O Spirit, who dost bind

Our hearts in unity,

Who teachest us to find

The love from self set free,

In all our hearts such love increase,

That every home, by this release,

May be the dwelling place of peace.

Above:  Memorial Garden, St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, Blairsville, Georgia, August 5, 2012

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/BishopWhitmoreSVisitToStClareSBlairsville#5773274281785530402)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words by Father F. Bland Tucker (1895-1984), Episcopal priest

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1.  All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine,

Didst yield the glory that of right was thine,

That in our darkened hearts thy grace might shine.

Alleluia!

2.  Thou cam’st to us in lowliness of thought;

By thee the outcast and the poor were sought,

And by thy death was God’s salvation wrought.

Alleluia!

3.  Let this mind be in us which was in thee,

Who was a servant that we might be free,

Humbling thyself to death on Calvary.

Alleluia!

4.  Let every tongue confess with one accord

In heaven and earth that Jesus Christ is Lord;

And God the Father be by all adored.

Alleluia!

Above:  St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, Blairsville, Georgia, August 5, 2012

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://picasaweb.google.com/114749828757741527421/BishopWhitmoreSVisitToStClareSBlairsville#5773274187628491250)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Words the John Milton (1608-1674), the great poet

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1.  How lovely are thy dwellings fair,

O Lord of hosts; how dear

The pleasant tabernacles are

Where thou dost dwell so near!

2.  Happy, who in thy house reside,

Where thee they ever praise!

Happy, whose strength in thee abide

And in their hearts thy ways!

3.  They journey on from strength to strength

With joy and gladness cheer,

Till all before our God at length

In Zion do appear.

4.  Lord God of hosts that reign’st on high,

That man is truly blest,

Who only on thee doth rely,

And in thee only rest.

Above:  Bethlehem (Undated Photograph)

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2006001353/)

Hymn Source = Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), of the United Church of Christ

Original Words by Valentin Thilo (1607-1662), Professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy at Konigsberg, Prussia

English Translation by Ezra Howard Geer (1886-1957)

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1.  O Jesu sweet, O Jesu mild,

Thy Father’s will hast thou fulfilled.

For thou hast left thy heavenly throne

Our lowly state to make thine own,

O Jesu sweet, O Jesu mild.

2.  O Jesu sweet, O Jesu mild,

Help us to do as thou hast willed.

Whate’er we have belongs to thee:

O may we ever faithful be,

O Jesu sweet, O Jesu mild.