Our singing hymns together has been suspended for some time. I hope that there is music in your homes. The choir recorded a hymn for Rogation Sunday (and the next three Rogation days), which you can listen to here. It is hymn #101, if you care to sing along.
With Wallace’s help, we’ve also recorded one of the parish’s favorite Communion hymns: “Deck thyself my soul with gladness.” You listen to our quarantine-style recording right here.
You may be interested in reading more about this hymn here, and reading the text to the 6 stanzas in the original that are missing from our Hymnal. Since we’ve been unable to take Communion for weeks, this stanza in particular is compelling:
Ah, how hungers all my spirit
For the love I do not merit!
Oft have I, with sighs fast thronging,
Thought upon this food with longing,
In the battle well nigh worsted,
For this cup of life have thirsted,
For the Friend who here invites us
And to God Himself unites us.
The page about “Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness” also features a recording that our choir made in 2016 under more normal circumstances. There is also an introduction to the entrancing cantata (Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 180) that J. S. Bach wrote around this text and tune. Plus, you can listen to an embedded recording of an chorale prelude for organ that Bach wrote based on this lovely tune.