Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

The hymn text orig­in­at­ed while I was shav­ing one morn­ing (a time when I get a lot of orig­in­al id­eas). I was ed­it­or of This Day ma­ga­zine at the time.

Since my teen­age years I have been writ­ing and trans­lat­ing poe­try, so many po­et­ic phras­es run through my mind, some of them end­ing up on pa­per. Some­where in the back of my mind, dur­ing my pre­vi­ous eight­een years in the full time par­ish min­is­try, I was ac­cu­mu­lat­ing rea­sons and be­ne­fits in wor­ship.

I have felt that we oft­en get so lit­tle out of wor­ship be­cause we an­ti­ci­pate so lit­tle, and we sel­dom come with a buck­et large enough to catch all the show­er of grace that comes to us in that set­ting.

Suddenly the hymn be­gan to form in my mind as a list of awe­some and ex­cit­ing things that one should ex­pect in wor­ship, cul­min­at­ing in the Eu­cha­rist and bene­dic­tion. The in­troit or en­trance hymn re­sult­ed.

Subconsciously I was pro­duc­ing a hymn with­out rhyme or with­out worn cli­chés, de­pend­ing en­tire­ly on rhy­thm and re­pe­ti­tion to make it sing­able. The re­ver­sal of the Tri­ni­tar­ian or­der in the bene­dic­tion was made not on­ly to make the con­clu­sion me­mo­ra­ble, but to in­di­cate the or­der in which the Tri­ni­ty ap­proach­es us in wor­ship: The Spi­rit brings us the Go­spel, by which God’s bless­ing is re­leased in our lives.

Jaroslav Vajda