Voices Found: Love Astounding # 143





 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

Galations 5:14 

Voices Found #143, verse 1

Love astounding, love confounding 

limits fearful minds impose.

Love renewing, love pursuing 

every heart until it knows

love's transforming, healing goodness, 

love's abiding, gentle grace,

love's endurance, love's assurance, 

love's consoling, strong embrace.

Words: Jeannette M. Lindholm

Music: Holy Manna, from The Southern Harmony, 1835; acc. Margaret M. Mealy


Author Jeannette (Jan) M. Lindholm is a professor of English.  While studying at the University of Minnesota, she specialized in composition and rhetoric and received her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature in 1992.  She also holds degrees from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN (B.A. in English and German, 1983), Indiana University (M.A. in English Language and Literature, 1986), and Boston University School of Theology (M.T.S., 1999) where she studied hymn writing with Carl P. Daw, Jr.  Her primary research interests include the following: issues related to religion and rhetoric, genre theory, feminist rhetoric, hymnology, and approaches to creating healthy academic communities.

While appropriate to sing with any Scripture that emphasizes God's Love, such as Galations 5:14 quoted above, "Love astounding," is an effective song  for the marriage rite.  Set to the early American folk tune Holy Manna, it is easy for a congregation or small group to sing accompanied or not.  Performance suggestions are offered in the Leader' Guide to Voices Found.



For background and performance suggestions please see The Leader's Guide to Voices Found 

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