In the work on the hymnal project so far, we have considered:
- a liturgical refrain turned into a spiritual song (“Come, O Jesus”)
- an old (1970’s) paraliturgical hymn (“The Ancient Prophecies”), which required some work and benefited greatly from collaborative input
- a more recent paraliturgical hymn (“Truly, Zion’s People”)
All three of these were in English, and for the time of the St. Phillip’s Fast (November 15-December 24).
Next, I’d like to take a look at our first hymn which has both Rusyn Slavonic and English Versions: the first of our two hymns to the bishop and wonder-worker Nicholas, archbishop of Myra in Lycia, whose feast is December 6.
This hymn was included in both the 1978 Divine Liturgies book and the MCI Byzantine Catholic Hymnal – but as you’ll see in the article, it has some issues to resolve before I can consider it in final form.
Read the following web page (which ends up covering quite a few topics, including two other hymns) and post your comments and questions here!
I do agree that we need this type of update to make some of these hymns flow better. I do think that some interpretations from the old language need to be updated so the message being such g is not changed. I have run into many hymns with different wording in different parts of the country. Thanks Jeff for all your efforts! Have a wonderful holiday season.