In Isolation: April 1, “Would You Bless Our Homes and Families”
An introduction to this “In Isolation” blog series appears at the top of the March 22 post.
A new subscriber signed on to the site who, unwittingly, inspired today’s hymn/poem. This new member of the Musiklus family is from Singapore and the very first title they chose to download was “Would You Bless Our Homes and Families”. Wow! Did that ever push some buttons for me.
Renowned hymnologist Erik Routley commented about Walter’s hymn text: “His exposition of faith in relation to the stress of family life … is a hymn on the ecology of the home”.
I love them all, but it’s the fourth verse that gets me every time: “Let us reach beyond the boundaries of our daily thought and care till the family you have chosen spills its love out everywhere.”
While Christina and I are working at home with almost no other direct human contact and experiencing a desperate down side of the ever-shrinking Planet Earth, suddenly a ‘ping’ announcing a new subscriber accompanies the lighting up of our analytics screen. From another culture halfway around the planet (as we view it) a new kindred spirit downloads and prints the words of a Canadian prairie poet set to the music of a former hippy in a matter of seconds. “Let us reach beyond the boundaries…” Have I said “WOW!” yet?
An excerpt from commentary from The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology
(See the rest at “Comments About Song” at https://musiklus.com/product/would-you-bless-our-homes-and-families/
“The hymn reflects the writer’s career as a ‘worker-priest’. Teaching English in the community’s public school while pastoring at Saltcoats United Church, Farquharson observed family and community relationships from two perspectives. The hymn text prays: ‘in our world of stress and tension teach us love that conquers fear’.”
An excerpt from Walter’s commentary from “Comments About Song”:
“Without a doubt this has been one of the best loved of the Farquharson/Klusmeier hymns. It was written in 1974 shortly after the death of a brother-in-law in a tragic farm accident. Such times are filled with stress and tension but also very often prove to be an amazing source of health and grace.”
Would you bless our homes and families,
Source of life who calls us here;
in our world of stress and tension
teach us love that conquers fear.
Help us learn to love each other
with a love that constant stays;
teach us when we face our troubles,
love’s expressed in many ways.
•
When our way is undemanding,
let us use the time that’s ours
to delight in simple pleasures,
sharing joys in gentle hours.
When our way is anxious walking
and a heavy path we plod,
teach us trust in one another
and in you, our gracious God.
•
From the homes in which we’re nurtured
with the love that shapes us there,
teach us, God, to claim as family
every one whose life we share.
And through all that life may offer,
may we in your love remain;
may the love we share in families
be alive to praise your name.
•
Let us reach beyond the boundaries
of our daily thought and care
till the family you have chosen
spills its love out everywhere.
Help us learn to love each other
with a love that constant stays;
teach us when we face our troubles,
love’s expressed in many ways.
Words by Walter Farquharson
Copyright © 1977 by Walter Farquharson.
Administered by Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, Illinois • USA