Scripture Verse

The Father…the Son and…the Ho­ly Spir­it. Matthew 28:20

Introduction

portrait
Percy Dearmer (1867–1936)

Words: From an 11th Cen­tu­ry ma­nu­script in the Brit­ish Mu­se­um (O Pa­ter sanc­te, mi­tis at­que pie). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Per­cy Dear­mer in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 160. For an­oth­er trans­la­tion, see Fa­ther Most Ho­ly, Mer­ci­ful, and Lov­ing.

Music: Christe du bei­stand Mat­thäus A. von Lö­wen­stern (1594–1648) (🔊 pdf nwc) (re­peats last line).

Alternate Tunes:

  • Herzliebster Je­su Jo­hann Crü­ger, New­es voll­köm­lich­es Ge­sang­buch Augs­burg­isch­er Con­fess­ion (Ber­lin: 1640) (🔊 pdf nwc)
  • Iste Con­fess­or Poi­ti­ers An­ti­phon­er, 1746 (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of von Lö­wen­stern (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Father most ho­ly, mer­ci­ful and ten­der;
Jesus our Sav­ior, with the Fa­ther reign­ing;
Spirit all kind­ly, Ad­vo­cate, De­fend­er,
Light nev­er wan­ing;

Trinity sac­red, Uni­ty un­shak­en;
Deity per­fect, giv­ing and for­giv­ing,
Light of the an­gels, Life of the for­sak­en,
Hope of the liv­ing;

Maker of all things, all Thy crea­tures praise Thee;
Lo, all things serve Thee through Thy whole cre­ation:
Hear us, Al­migh­ty, hear us as we raise Thee
Heart’s ado­ra­tion.

To the all rul­ing tri­une God be glo­ry:
Highest and great­est, help Thou our en­dea­vor;
We, too, would praise Thee, giv­ing hon­or wor­thy
Now and for­ev­er.