Rendez à Dieu (Arr. by Louis Bourgeois 1542)

Last night I was the Cantor at the Cathedral, and we sang the Rendez à Dieu composed by Louis Bourgeois in the sixteenth century in France. The hymn really struck me in its simple beauty....

The tune first appeared in La forme des prieres et chants ecclesiastiques, Strasbourg in 1545. Curiously, Bourgeois arranged the hymn in association with the protestant reformer, John Calvin. In the Middle Ages, the congregation did not sing in public worship services. As part of his reform efforts, Calvin transferred the singing from the clergy to the people and enunciated in the Council of Geneva in 1537 that the people ought sing the Psalms "in order to lift up our hearts unto God and to exalt His Name by the songs of praise." The council rejected Calvin's suggestion; and a year later he was  banished from his hometown of Geneva to Strasbourg. In 1539 he began work on the Psalter for the congregation to sing. New psalters were issued almost yearly as Calvin and various music directors contributed new arrangements and tunes to the repertoire.

(This psalter is dated 1542)

The lyrics in the St. Michael Hymnal (derived from the Greek Didache from c. 110) are quite beautiful:  

"Watch o'er Thy Church, O Lord, in mercy, / Save it from evil, guard it still, / Perfect it in love, unite it, / Cleansed and conformed unto Thy will."

Similarly, on Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of our liturgical year, the final line of the hymn reminds us of the dominion of Christ:

"So from all lands Thy church be gathered / Into Thy kingdom by Thy Son."

  

Father We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted

Father, we thank Thee Who has planted

Thy holy name within our hearts.

Knowledge and faith and life immortal

Jesus Thy Son to us imparts.

Thou, Lord, didst make all for Thy pleasure,

Didst give man food for all his days,

Giving in Christ the bread eternal;

Thine is the pow'r, be Thine the praise.

Watch o'er Thy Church, O Lord, in mercy,

Save it from evil, guard it still,

Perfect it in love, unite it,

Cleansed and conformed unto Thy will.

As grain, once scattered on the hillsides,

Was in this broken bread made one,

So from all lands Thy church be gathered

Into Thy kingdom by Thy Son.

Words: Greek from the Didache, c. 110; tr. F. Bland Tucker, 1895-1984

Tune: Rendez à Dieu (arr. by Louis Bourgeois 1510-1561)