Words we don't quite get

[Nick Baty]

This morning we'll be singing "The same to thee great Paraclete" – I'm sure we're not the only ones – and I was just mulling on the fact that "Paraclete" means nothing to me. According to my dictionary it is: "the Holy Spirit as advocate or counsellor based on John 14:16, 26.

I remember singing "O loving Pelican" which most collections have dropped from O Godhead hid, definitely in my top ten of all time, along with The Village People's Go West and Handel's Lascia ch'io pianga.

As a child I had not idea what was meant by "Sojourners in this vale of tears..." and had surgical visions from "who for my sake, sweet blood from Mary's veins didst take..."

And I was just wondering, apart from the usual suspect of Colours of Day – which is as incomprehensible to me as MacArthur Park, although I do love the Donna Summer version – how many hymn words/lines do we not understand?

[alan29]

I'm having Colours of Day at my cremation. I hope to be hovering somewhere to watch their faces as they got to the chorus.
Alan

[Anne]

"Guard and defend me from the foe malign, in deaths dread moments make me only thine...." I never quite understood what the Foe Malign was about - is it to do with a malignant cancer? And our death should not be a 'dread' moment, shouldn't it be our finest hour?

[NorthernTenor]

"Guard and defend me from the foe malign, in deaths dread moments make me only thine...." I never quite understood what the Foe Malign was about - is it to do with a malignant cancer? And our death should not be a 'dread' moment, shouldn't it be our finest hour?

It may or may not be my finest moment, but there's a fair chance it will be uncomfortable. I expect I shall need all the help I can get.

[gwyn]

Gladly my cross I'd bear

It's difficult not to immediately think of Gladly, my cross-eyed bear.

I think Gladly was the name of the moth-eaten teddy bear owned by Baby Grumplin in "The Perishers" cartoon strip.

[JW]

We often sang this from 'Faith of our Fathers' when I was a child:

"how sweet would be their children's fate if they like them could die for thee" - it may be an admirable sentiment but it doesn't fit in with our modern church. I mentally cross my fingers nowadays if I have to sing it.

[alan29]

I seem to remember that we had to be "mindful of our Saviour's bidding and of the Prairie Tortoise ..." as the intro to the Our father. Tell me I am not wrong.
Alan

[gwyn]

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation, through your goodness we have this swine to offer . . .

[lesley wright]

There's a wonderful Methodist hymn "Come, thou fount of every blessing" which includes the line "here I raise my Ebenezer". Can anyone tell me why one would want to raise an Ebenezer, even if one had such a useful article?

[Petrasancta]

Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer—"the stone of help"—for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us!" —1 Samuel 7:12, NLT

[musicus]

Petrasancta knows all about holy stones, of course.

[Vox Americana]

here I raise my Ebenezer…

and there was I thinking it was a champagne bottle somewhere between a Jeroboam and Melchizedek.

[quaeritor]

"Guard and defend me from the foe malign, in deaths dread moments make me only thine...." I never quite understood what the Foe Malign was about - is it to do with a malignant cancer?

As a small child - and quite a precocious ****** - I'd got hold of the idea that "malign" was pronounced "malinne" (closer to "malignant" but possibly derived from some Latin word in the responses to the Mass which we all learned off by heart (didn't we?)) - which meant that it had to be "in death's dread moment make me only thin" - which as I was a plump little lad seemed to me to imply a criticism of my current physique. Oh, the psychological torture . . !

Q

[organist]

Laughing lol Thanks Gwyn I'll never be able to sing that line again without thinking of swineflu...

[alan29]

Surely it's a misprint for "toe malign" - a reference to trench foot.
Alan