Spiritual songs > Hymns of the Liturgical Year > Palm Sunday
Rejoice today
This English setting of Radujsja zilo is a well-known hymn for Palm Sunday. The English translation and setting are by cantors Nicholas Kalvin, Michael Zaretsky, and Jerry Jumba, and Monsignor Alexis Mikalik.
The prophecies of Zachariah and Zephaniah (in Slavonic, Zacharija and Sophonia) are read at Vespers of Palm Sunday, and describe the coming of the Lord into Jerusalem: "a just Savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, a colt, the foal of an ass."
This setting is actually a translation of verses 1 and 5 of the original Slavonic hymn, but the assignment of syllables to notes varies enough between the two verses that is is usually written out without verse markings. This may explain why the line “to proclaim the Master”, which would be repeated in the Slavonic original, is not repeated here.
This hymn was reviewed and edited slightly as part of the Hymnal Project of the Metropolitan Cantor Institute. See the discussion page.
Sources
Text and music were included in Monsignor William Levkulic's Hymns of the Great Fast (on page 28).