HOSANNA! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES!

This Sunday is the Sunday of the Passion still subtitled by its older and better known name, Palm Sunday.  It celebrates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and marks the beginning of Holy Week. This was always a big day in the church where I was raised. We didn’t process around as we don now, but everybody received a palm cross which was carefully preserved through the year.

I can’t remember any Palm Sunday when we didn’t sing the old hymn “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.”

All glory, laud and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King,
To Whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s Name comest,
The King and Blessèd One.

Anglican clergyman John Mason Neale translated this hymn from the Latin poem of Theodulph of Orleans,

Gloria, laus et honor Tibi sit, Rex Christe Redemptor,
Cui puerile decus prompsit Hosanna pium.

Theodulph was and interesting cleric. He had come to prominence under the Emperor Charlemagne, rising from a Benedictine abbot to Bishop of Orleans. Unfortunately Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son and successor, came to distrust him and had him imprisoned. He wrote his hymn in 820 while a prisoner.

The company of angels
Are praising you on high;
Creation and all mortals
In chorus make reply.

A legend is told about the hymn. On Palm Sunday the King Louis, passed in procession before the cloister where Theodulph was imprisoned.  The bishop raised his voice and sang his hymn; The king was delighted and released the singer restoring him to his see. 

Another song that we sang while I was a youth was the anthem, Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes written by Moravian Bishop Christian Gregor in 1765. Arranged for two choirs–children and adult. It was a great joy for us kids to sing “Hosanna” at the top of our lungs. I don’t think it was quite “sweet hosanna” on the “lips of children” that old Theodulph imagined.

And then there was the beautiful anthem The Palms by Jean-Baptiste Faure.   

O'er all the way, green palms and blossoms gay
Are strewn this day in festal preparation,
Where Jesus comes to wipe our tears away,
E'en now the throng to welcome Him prepare,
Join all and sing, His name declare,
Let ev'ry voice resound with acclamation.
Hosanna! Praised be the Lord!
Bless Him who cometh to bring us salvation!

I supposed this one really sounds hokey today, a relic of the Romantic age, but I miss it. I wonder what the chances are that just once more in my life I’ll attend a Palm Sunday Service and hear all three of my favorites again?  Fortunately, I can pick up the musical scores and hear them again in my mind.

Hosanna! Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

May the Lord who came to us bless you on your journey and bless you on your arrival.

Wayne






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