Prepare your hearts

Prepare your hearts, prepare your minds, the reign of God comes near!

The prophet’s voice cries out to all; let all God’s people hear!

            Let all God’s people hear!

Make straight the pathway of our Lord; prepare a road to be

The highway of the Holy One for all the world to see!

            For all the world to see!

No one will hurt, no one will harm in our Lord’s holy place;

Our Lord will judge with righteousness and show the poor God’s grace,

            And show the poor God’s grace.

So welcome one another all, to give God glory true,

And so prepare the way of God in all you say and do,

            In all you say and do.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2019, after Advent 2A scriptures.

MUSIC: Possible tunes:

            CHRISTMAS, G.F. Handel, arr. Lowell Mason, 1821.

            WINCHESTER OLD, Este’s Psalms, 1592 (without repeated last line)

There are two deliberate projects at work in this set of hymns for Advent A; the use of some fairly well-known Christmas tunes that might not get quite as much play at Christmas as some others (i.e. I'm pretty unlikely to use ADESTE FIDELES as a part of this set), and to write (with the exception of the hymn for 4A) texts that reference all of the given scripture readings (except the psalm) for that given Sunday. The reference may be slight, as here with the brief allusion to the Romans reading in the final stanza), but hopefully they show up at least a little.