You’ll see that I have “recycled” the words from the Advent Nunc Dimittis by setting them to a different tune: Von Himmel Hoch, or “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.” What would a Lutheran choral setting of the liturgy be without a tune by Martin Luther, after all?! And I try to stay pretty faithful to the classic texts for these principal parts of the service, so I don’t get real “creative!” But since many hymns share the same “meter” (the number of beats, or syllables, per line), it means that one set of words can be used to different hymns, depending on the season of the church year and the familiarity of a given tune. Now you know my secret.

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The “OLD Red Hymnal,” AKA SBH, AKA Service Book and Hymnal, was where I first encountered the lovely Christmas carol, “Love Came Down at Christmas.” The tune is a gentle Irish lullaby. The words were from a poem of, I believe, Christina Rosetti, a renowned 19th century poet. Go look it up if you’re not familiar with it. Anyhow, with this paraphrase of the Agnus Dei, I had a wonderful excuse to highlight a lovely tune.

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I think this was the first hymn paraphrase of the liturgy that I ever did, and it was for a Christmas Eve service at the church where I was the associate pastor. I’ve always loved the tune “Divinum Mysterium,” better known as the hymn, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” Simple, meditative, and lovely, it seemed the perfect melody for my paraphrase of the Sanctus. The only catch: trying to score it was more difficult than anticipated, so I just kept the melody line!

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I had fun with this. You can use this as the Prayers of the Church, or as an extended Kyrie, especially on the Sunday after Christmas (when many congregations have a services of lessons and carols anyway). It’s set to the tune, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” (a sadly overlooked carol in politically correct times!).  The petitions are sung by the cantor, assisting minister, or someone else who can enunciate and get the words out briskly. The refrain is done by the whole assembly. It’s written so that almost every syllable has its very own note, until the refrain, so that even though the words certainly march along, the cantor doesn’t have to think hard about what syllable goes with what note!

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The Gloria in Excelsis is the quintessential Christmas carol, being sung over shepherds and flocks near Bethlehem the night of Jesus’ birth. This paraphrase of the Gloria (pretty much the exact same version as for Advent) now uses, appropriately, the tune “Carol,” usually known as “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” Enjoy!

Download it here.