Voices Found: Lent I: Skye Boat Song for the Queen, and a hymn for Heloise, VF 53, 58 (WLWC Lent I C)
Voices Found # 53
Spirit of God, unseen as the wind,
gentle as the dove:
teach us the truth and help us believe,
show us the savior's love!
Words: Margaret Old (1932-2002)
Music: Skye Boat Song, traditional Scottish melody
Queen Elizabeth II loved the Skye Boat Song. Bagpipers played it at the funerals for the Queen and the Queen Mother. It was the theme song for the TV series "Outlander." In 1782, William Ross composed the original Gaelic song entitled Cuachag nan Craobh, or "Cuckoo of the Tree." In Cuckoo the composer laments his unrequited love for Lady Marion Ross. Like many love songs, it became a hymn as composers and poets changed the words from from singing of secular love to texts celebrating the sacred love of God. Such adaptations of folk songs are called contrafacta.
The hand of God Who Dwells Above the Cherubim came upon me and God brought me (Ezekiel) out through the Spirit of God Whose Name is Holy and rested me down in the middle of a particular valley--and it was full of bones...
Then God said to me, Prophesy upon these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Ancient of Days...Look! I will cause spirit-and-breath to enter you and you shall come to life. (Ezekiel 37: 1, 4, 5, tr. Gafney)
Spirit of God by the prophets you sought us,
calling us back from our pride-filled behavior.
through chosen leaders you reached us and taught us;
by your own gift we were given our savior.
Spirit of God, like mighty wind blowing:
suddenly Christians stopped hiding and fearing.
You gave them courage and love overflowing,
so they proclaimed you to all in their hearing.
Words: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, verses 2 and 3
Music: O quanta qualia, Antiphoner (1681)
O Quanta qualia is a melody that first appeared in the Paris Antiphoner in 1681, with a text by Peter Abelard born 1079, in Pallet, France. Abelard, a priest, fell in love with a beautiful young woman, Heloise, recognized as a leading scholar of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. When they could hide their affair no longer, they fled to Brittany and married. Infuriated, Heloise's uncle Canon Fulbert of Notre Dame, had Abelard punished by emasculation. Heloise fled to the convent of Argenteuil. She became a nun. Abelard wrote the hymn, O Quanta qualia, for her and the community at Argenteuil.
In the spirit of contrafacta, Carolyn Gillette wrote new words for Abelard's tune. Here she celebrates the Spirit of God as a mighty wind blowing, echoing the ancient spirit of the prophet Ezekiel.
Prayer (Voices Found # 580)
Help us to see you, still calling and caring,
help us to know you among us creating.
Spirit of God, give us courage and daring--
to share God's love with a world that is waiting.
Words: Gillette, Vs. 4
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