God bids us welcome . . .

[gwyn]

Hello everyone, I looking for the source of the following hymn...

God bids us welcome to his house;
and he invites us to his feast.
Day of great joy and happiness.
Alleluia!

Great was my joy when I was told:
"Let us go forth to God's abode
that's in the city of the Lord."

Christ is the sun which brings the dawn.
He is the light of all the world,
setting us free from death and sin.

Hearing the word of God the Son,
we honour him 'til life is done,
living in truth with ev'ry one.

Speak, then, O Lord, our hearts renew.
You show the way, your word is true.
Bring life to men, make all things new.

Christ is the grain of wheat that died,
sown in distress and reaped with joy,
yielding a harvest of new life.

The tune for the refrain; 'God bids us welcome' is, according the the New English Hymnal, "Victory" which is adapted from a Palestrina Gloria. It's often associated with the hymn "The Strife is o'er, the battle done. I've no idea who composed the tune/satb for the verses or who the words to the verses are by.

As ever, I'll be grateful for any guidance.
Gwyn.

[Southern Comfort]

I am virtually certain that these verses come from the hymn "Christ is alive! With joy we sing" by Sister Pamela Stotter, which first appeared (I think) in the Irish hymnal Alleluia! Amen! edited by Margaret Daly and published by Veritas, and has appeared in other hymnals since (Laudate?). I don't recognize the first verse, so wonder if the NEH subsituted their first verse for hers, but verses 2 and 5 as you quote them are certainly hers as I remember them. (Am typing this on the road and do not have my reference books handy to check.)

The correct tune for this text is VULPIUS, by the way.

[Ros Wood]

The refrain and first verse appear in Repetoire Multilingue from Lourdes as Dieu Nous Accueille En Sa Maison. There it says that the French text and music for the verses were written by Jean-Paul Lecot, with the music for the refrain by Palestrina. I'm not sure whether this was an original work or an adaptation from something that first appeared in another language but the absence of any other reference would suggest that it originated in Lourdes.

I agree with SC that the other verses come from Christ is Alive.

[gwyn]

Thanks S.C., thanks Ros.
That's my question answered in its fullness.

Diolch.
Gwyn.

[Southern Comfort]

For completeness:

Pamela Stotters's original text (not in Laudate but at Celebration Hymnal for Everyone 107). Bold shows the verses that were "pinched" for Gwyn's text:

Christ is alive, with joy we sing;
we celebrate our risen Lord,
praising the glory of his name.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

He is the grain of wheat that died;
sown in distress and reaped in joy,
yielding a harvest of new life.

He is the sun which brings the dawn:
he is the light of all the world,
setting us free from death and sin.

He is the vine set in the earth,
sharing our life, becoming man,
that we might share in God's own life.

Verse 5 = same as verse 1

Laudate substitutes Brian Wren's text "Christ is alive! Let Christians sing"

And Stotter's text did not, after all, first appear in Alleluia, Amen! as I had thought. I do not remember where I first saw it.

Quick rough translation of Dieu nous acceuille en sa maison, keeping the tune. First two verses are identical to Gwyn's text (and the translation there is certainly dynamically equivalent!), but the bold verses are different:

God bids us welcome to his house;
and he invites us to his feast.
Day of great joy and happiness.
Alleluia!

Great was my joy when I was told:
"Let us go forth to God's abode
that's in the city of the Lord."

Cry out with heartfelt joy to God;
sing out to him, for he is good,
for everlasting is his love.

With our Lord Jesus we were dead;
with Jesus we returned to life;
now we can share his glorious light!

If you but knew the gift of God,
if you believed his steadfast love,
there would be no more fear in you.