Lo! He comes, with clouds descending,once for our salvation slain;thousand thousand saints attendingswell the triumph of His train.Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!God appears on earth to reign. 2 Ev’ry eye shall now behold Him,robed in dreadful majesty;those who set at naught and sold Him,pierced, and nailed Him to the tree,deeply wailing, deeply wailing,shall the true Messiah see. […]
URC Daily Devotion 20th December
My Soul is Filled with Joy / Holy is Your Name (Magnificat – Wild Mountain Thyme) This is a setting of the Magnificat / Canticle of Mary (from Luke 1) to the Scottish folk-tune “Wild Mountain Thyme” (also known as “Will ye Go Lassie, Go”). The author is unknown: It was published in 1978 […]
URC Daily Devotion 19th December
This is a free rendering of a Basque carol, ‘Birjina gaztettobat zegoen’, which Baring-Gould may have come across in his travels. It was published in one of a series of pamphlets entitled The University Carol Book in 1922. The Angel Gabriel from heaven came,his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;‘All hail’, said he, ‘thou lowly maiden […]
URC Daily Devotion 18th September
This is a translation of a Latin hymn, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, itself a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons – a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas. O come, O come, Immanuel,and ransom captive Israel,that mourns in lonely exile hereuntil the Son of God appear. Rejoice, rejoice!Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou Wisdom […]
URC Daily Devotions 17th December
To you I call, O LORD my Rock;Do not be deaf to my loud cry.I’ll be like those gone down to death,If you are silent in reply. Receive my plea for mercy, LORD,As now I call to you for grace,As I lift up my hands in prayerAnd look to your Most Holy Place. O drag […]
URC Daily Devotion 16th December
For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we […]
URC Daily Devotion 15th December
In these times,when we feel like exiles in a foreign land… In these times,as we hanker after an age that felt so much clearer than the confused and uncertain now… In these times,the great and glorious past (the days of packed churches, world peace, community as family, children safely playing in the streets…)calls to us […]
URC Daily Devotion 14th December
In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the […]
URC Daily Devotion 13th September
The Book of Zephaniah is all about judgement and deliverance, but chapter three, the context of our verse for today, concentrates on the former, revealing precious little hope of deliverance for Jerusalem. ‘Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled’ (3:1) because: ‘She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust […]
URC Daily Devotions 12th December
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,and you will not listen?Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.The […]