Welcome to our hymn sing!

Psalm 42:8 – “The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime,
and in the night his song shall be with me.”

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For “littles” and “young at heart”

Prayer for strength:

(Feel free to say each line and have your child repeat what you say or say it as you pray together.)

Dear God,
When things get really hard please help remember to ask for your help.
I pray for hope even when I don’t feel it.
I pray for love when I see people doing bad things.
I pray for joy that comes from you.
You are good.
Help me to always remember that!!
Amen.

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Fishers of Men

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Be Thou My Vision
8th Century

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 28:19

Hymn Background:

Only one missionary is honored with a global holiday, and only one is known by his own distinct color of green– St. Patrick, missionary to Ireland.

Patrick was born in A.D. 373 along the banks of the River Clyde in what is now Scotland. His father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest. When the young man was 16, raiders came to his town and torched his home. When one of the pirates saw him in the bushes, he was captured, hauled aboard ship and taken to Ireland as a slave. There he gave his life to Jesus Christ.

In one of his diaries he wrote, “The Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief in order that I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God.”

Patrick eventually escaped and returned home. His overjoyed family begged him to never leave again. But one night in a dream similar to Paul’s vision of the Macedonian Man in Acts 16, Patrick saw an Irishman pleading with him to come back to Ireland and preach God’s word.

It wasn’t an easy decision for him, but Patrick at 30, returned to his former captors with only one book, the Latin Bible, in his hand. As he preached, multitudes came to listen. The superstitious Druids opposed him and wanted him dead. But his preaching was powerful, and Patrick became one of the most fruitful evangelists of all time, planting about 200 churches and baptizing 100,000 converts.

His work endured and several centuries later, the Irish church was still producing hymns, prayers, sermons and songs of worship. In the 8th Century, an unknown poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his Vision, his Wisdom, and his Best Thought by day or by night.

In 1905, Mary Elizabeth Byrne, a scholar in Dublin, translated this ancient Irish poem into English. Another scholar, Eleanor Hull of Manchester, England, took Byrne’s translation and crafted it into verses with rhyme and meter. Shortly after that, it was set to a traditional Irish folk song entitled “Slane”. Slane is an area in Ireland where Patrick reportedly challenged the local Druids with the gospel.

LYRICS:

1. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought by day or by night.
Walking or sleeping thy presence my light.

2. Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me Lord.
Thou my redeemer, by love thou hast won.
Thou in me dwelling and I with thee one.

3. Riches I heed not nor vain, empty praise.
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and thou only, first in my heart.
Great God of heaven, my treasure thou art.

4. Great God of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

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Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly