The Prayer Handbook points out that today is kept, in the Catholic Church particularly, as the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the day when the mother of Jesus ‘fell asleep’ and of her bodily assumption into heaven. That language is outside my comfort zone and for years would have deterred me from thinking about the impact of Mary on us all.
Many of us struggle with words and in matters of expressing faith, hymnwriters set out for everyone what we want to express but cannot formulate into words. A notable exception was The Reverend Alan Gaunt, a United Reformed Church Minister who died last year. His contribution to hymnody was significant; if you sing hymns, you are likely to have sung his words ‘Lord Christ we praise your sacrifice’ which is in at least ten hymn books.
Another of Alan Gaunt’s texts is suggested for use today by the Methodist Church. Number 120 in Singing the Faith, ‘We gladly celebrate and praise, the gift so great and good’ is set to Charles Hutcheson’s tune, Stracathro. In the hymn we are led to reflect on motherhood as the gift by which God’s kindness is made known. The hymn is supportive for all for whom motherhood has been painful and those who have not known maternal tenderness.
At the end, the hymn picks up again what Mary gave us through the privilege of bearing ‘God’s Son to birth.’
‘We trust the mother-love of God,
Who bears, in Mary’s boy,
Our pain and sorrow, to secure
Our everlasting joy.’
Simple profound and moving; I wish I could have written those words.
A Prayer
God of Mary and Jesus, God of us all, when words fail us, we thank you for those who enable us to express what we feel but cannot verbalise. From the earliest poets to those whose skills are manifest now, we praise you for those who write hymns and songs and who set words to music that we may sing your praises in refreshing and meaningful ways, as befits your glory, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.