Here is another Lenten hymn, to pair with my recent setting of my old hymn text "When Time Had Come for Christ to Die." Whereas that hymn is fitting for commemorating Christ's death on Good Friday, this hymn is a hymn of the myrrh-bearers, who came to anoint Christ's tomb. It is a hymn of abandonment, a hymn of Holy Saturday. I first wrote it almost a decade ago, with some adjustments throughout the years, and I'm happy to finally share it.
The tune is "Picardy," a French carol tune. It is best-known through Ralph Vaughan Williams' arrangement of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence." That is certainly the inspiration for my use of it here, as the text of that hymn is used as the Cherubikon for Holy Saturday.
Have a blessed Fast.
Longest Night of Earthly Vigil by Brandon P. Otto on Scribd
Scribd link:https://www.scribd.com/document/706723610/Longest-Night-of-Earthly-Vigil
Internet Archive mirror: https://archive.org/details/longest-night-of-earthly-vigil
Text:
1. Longest night of earthly vigil,
'fore the rock now keeps the Bride.
Taken from the bloody sigil
In the Tomb He'll e'er abide.
R: Christ the Lord to earth descended,
O black earth, release Him now!
2. Rank on rank the hosts of heaven
Took their leave so silently.
Hast Thou lost that holy leaven
Which would raise Thee gloriously?
3. Moon and stars of night are fading
And the sun no more will rise.
Yet, departing, some faint shading
In the darkness piques our eyes.
4. All the night we've kept in sorrow,
Yet the dark has just begun.
Return shall we on the morrow
And each night till time has run.
5. On the morrow we anoint Thee
If the rock will bend away.
For myrrh makes the dead smell sweetly
But can God redeem death's prey?
6. Farewell, O our Friend and Master!
Now we take our bitter leave!
Farewell, O our wolf-maimed Pastor!
At the blood of dawn, we grieve!
Lyrics ©2023 Brandon P. Otto. Licensed via CC BY-NC. Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the lyricist.
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