Today in Church we sang some of my favorite hymns. I love the hymn "Come Unto Him" #114. It is such a comforting hymn. I fell in love with it at a time when my soul was in turmoil. I had gone to the Manti Temple and as I sat in the Chapel waiting for the session to start, the organist was playing the hymn. I opened the book and started reading the words. It brought the answer to my prayers - literally in the hymn. I did the session and felt peace for a time. I find that when my life is in turmoil or even when I am incredibly happy, a hymn will pop into my head. I love all of the hymns but I do have several favorites. I had not sung them for quites some time and it will more than likely be a long time - if ever- before I ever sing them again.
I love "In Our Lovely Deseret" # 307. This used to be a Primary song but it is no longer in the Children's Songbook. As we sang the words today I realized that it is a very dated and very much a Utah song. It will be long time before I choose it again but it was so much fun to sing it today. Also - it was kind of fun to watch people' faces as they sang. Several investigators wanted to discuss the song because it was so blunt. One way to discuss the Gospel.
The Closing song is another that will be a LONG time - if ever - before we sing it again and that is "The Wintry Day Descending to It's Close" # 37. This was even more archaic in the wording than "In Our Lovely Deseret" and it was written after. It is very much a Utah song and not only that it is 'pioneer' song. It is beautiful and I love it but very few people - even those from the West really understood or liked it as much as the organist and I did. For those of you that do not have a hymnbook, go to LDS.org and you can look up the words and music there. If nothing else - maybe you will learn to love "Come Unto Him" as much as I do.
So my only winner of the day was the opening hymn. They were all 'known' but just not the most familiar of the hymns in the hymnbook. One of the things I do when I lead the music is we sing all of the verses or at least as many as we can. If there are 8 or more verses, then I select the verses we will sing but always we close with what is intended to be the last verse of the hymn. It seems ridiculous to me to read a poem and quit halfway through. If you were singing any other song, would you quit before you finished? Then why in the world would you stop singing a hymn on verse 4 when there are 3 more to go? At least sing the first couple of verses and quit with verse 7. Then you have at least completed the storyline. OK - enough of my soapbox.
I love the hymns of the Church. I love that I think in the music that is around me. My favorite memory is of my niece Christina Dittmar and how she would sing or hum when she was little. Usually it was a Church hymn or Primary song but she always has had music in her soul. How blessed we are to have beautiful music all around us!
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3 comments:
I love the last few verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. It never gets song the way it should. My favorite hymns seem to be everyone's favorites, Where Can I Turn for Peace? and Because I Have Been Given Much.
I agree with Heidi...we sang A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in RS today and we sang some of the last verses instead of the first ones.
My favorite hymn is Come Thou Fount. It isn't in the current hymnbook...here is a fantastic recording of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUhU0HgTq94
I also really like Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy.
My favorite is How Great Thou Art. I always sing it, and I love the way it always reminds me of Daddy. It brings me peace.
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