The Purification
SAB and Organ. This is a beautifully crafted, haunting, and eminently useful setting of the story of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. The composer sets the ancient text with a chant-like melody against a contemporary, yet playable, organ accompaniment. The final verse includes a soaring descant.
All prophets hail thee, from of old announcing,
by the inbreathed Spirit of the Father,
God's Mother, bringing prophecies to fullness,
Mary the maiden.
Thou the true Virgin Mother of the Highest,
Bearing incarnate God in awed obedience,
meekly accepting for a sinless offering
Purification.
In the high temple Simeon receives thee,
takes to his bent arms with a holy rapture
that promised Saviour, vision of redemption,
Christ long awaited.
Glory and worship to the Lord of all things
pay we unresting, who alone adored,
Father and Son and Spirit, in the highest
reigneth eternal. Amen.