I am skipping the 14th and 15th Sundays after Trinity because hymns I have already written will suit the lessons for those services. The former is my "Fruit of the Spirit" hymn written three years ago; the latter is the more recent "Worry" hymn. So on we go to the 16th S. after T., for which the Epistle is Ephesians 3:13-21 and the Gospel is Luke 7:11-17, the raising from the dead of the widow's son at Nain. The tune is BEATUS VIR from Samotulský's Kancional, 1561, about which there is a page on the Czech version of Wikipedia; but since I can't read Czech, you now know at least as much as I know about it.
When to a friend’s tomb You were led,
How do You say, “Weep not!” in Nain
To her whose only son is dead?
Your love is not in words but deeds;
Nor is the happiness You give
Only at heart. For all our needs
You dare to die, You rise to live.
Lord, when your holy foot drew near,
The bearers halted in surprise.
When You laid hand upon the bier,
How do You say, “Young man, arise”?
’Tis not for anything unclean
Your holiness, Lord, to destroy;
You, rather, sanctify the scene
And rob death of the widow’s boy.
Then, for a while, men saw and praised
The visitation of God’s Son;
How shall we now, Lord, be amazed
To see yet greater marvels done?
For at Your font the blood You shed
Is poured on us, creating faith;
And at Your altar wine and bread
Include us in Your saving death.
How else will You revive and cleanse
The dead in sin, but by Your Word?
What human work or reason lends
The treasure freely here conferred?
Therefore to You we bow the knee
Who build us up in love and faith,
Till we behold the mystery:
Filled with Your fulness, free from death.
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