Next in our series...O Oriens....
O Oriens: “O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (Isaiah 9:1).
O Oriens, to the tune of “Wouldn’t it be Nice” (with apologies to the Beach Boys)
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to feel the radiance
Feel the splendor of eternal light
And wouldn’t it be nice to feel the sunshine
And the justice from up there on high
You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can be with God and hang together
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
From the darkness and from all the fear
And after having spent the day together
Spend eternity with God so close and near
The Happy times together we’ve been spending
Our fear of death will now begin its ending
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice
Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray about Isaiah’s words
The people in the darkness will have seen a great light
To exit the darkness
And then we’d be happy
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice
You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice
11 comments:
These O Antiphons are GREAT! Inspired! I love 'em all --keep it up!
Astonishing.
I am so glad we can have fun with out faith.
These are fabulous! I love them. :-)
Brilliant, Kirke.
That's really great, I definitely could hear it with the tune in my head. Not being Episcopalian, a lot of this liturgical stuff it lost on me, but I'm getting intrigued. Might have to check y'all out sometime.
I was born in 1945, so I know all the tunes, but I keep forgetting the rest halfway through ( ! ), really, it's true, but the lyrics are brilliant.
I love the idea of the O antiphons being among the pop songs of the day, at least for the monks. My church musician told the choir yesterday that the tune to which we're singing The Holly and the Ivy was a popular dance, and the dance was the one we all learned as children (at least those of us born a long time ago!) as "Put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right here..." Him telling us that made all the difference in the choir's singing of the anthem.
We've made these things so very serious, and you have restored the playfulness to them, and by extension, to Christianity. Many thanks, Kirke. Blessings of Advent to you.
Oh this is so great. I am so behind on my blog reading, but glad for the nudge from MP to come on over.
Thank you for this gift!
Paul
Have you made a really embarrassing typo? Or have you been reading Dicky Dorkins again?
Well done! Thanks for these.
FWIW
jimB
Great stuff here, beautiful!
Peter Carey+
http://santospopsicles.blogspot.com
Oh, I like this one too. Ok, off to see the one before it.
Post a Comment