Hymn for Jack Winslow – writer of the Third Order Rule: Feast Day 29 May

You teach us not to live for self
but to reach out to all;
Open our eyes to dawn’s bright rays
Community our call.

You gave Jack Winslow the insight
that makes fraternity:
And through our eyes see dawn’s bright rays
On our community.

With eloquence and phrases wise
Jack Winslow’s pen did write:
So may our eyes bask in dawn’s rays –
Community’s delight .

Today we come to praise our God;
Our Rule inscribes our heart:
With dawn we realise joy’s rays
Community impart.
 

• Ted Witham tssf 2021

Metre: 8686 St Botolph TiS 223
                        Lucius TiS 442(ii)
                         Crimond TiS 10

Jack Winslow loved Job 3:9 so much that he used the image for the title of his ‘memories, reflections and hopes’, The Eyelids of the Dawn (Hodder & Stoughton, 1954)  
Let the stars of its twilight be dark, Let it wait for light, and there is none, And let it not look on the eyelids of the dawn. Job 3:9 (Young’s Literal Translation)

Hymn for St Brendan

Hymn to Saint Brendan
Feast Day – May 16

Voyager, our patron Brendan
sailed through seas to search for God.
Voyagers, Christians of Warnbro,
follow him along the road.

Brendan, hero and God-seeker,
Now we praise our God for you!
Brendan, hermit and prayer-speaker,
Teach us how to search like you.

Navigate the way of Jesus,
Find out how to bear the cross,
Piloting from sin to glory
Daring all, not count the cost.

Trav’lling where the current carried,
Brendan left the course to God,
Sometimes turning in a circle,
Sometimes finding new abodes.

Now we know that Brendan landed
on the New World’s distant beach,
Awesome sights and skies unbounded
Never are beyond God’s reach.

Brendan, saint and our companion,
Teach us how we are to cede
lives and worries to God’s keeping,
Blessed with Jesus in the lead.


– Ted Witham 2021

Metre 8787 8787 Blaenwern
or ‘The Carnival is Over’