Lent II for kids
  • daniel
    Posts: 75
    Anyone know a "kid friendly" song about the Transfiguration that I can use with my school choir? Thanks!
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,390
    @daniel specificially asked for a “kid friendly” hymn for the Transfiguration gospel. IMO the Laurence Housman text referred to by @canadash has a couple of scansion problems in the first two lines; it’s not terribly “Transfiguration-ish,” (The Hymnal 1982 even assigns the hymn to its “Epiphany” section along with several other Baptism of the Lord texts); and the final stanza has a theological problem if the line “To you, the King of glory, now” is heard without the second comma.

    I think J. Armitage Robinson’s “’Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here,” sung to SWABIA, would be much more “kid friendly.” The text, as updated in the 1996 Voices United: The Hymn and Worship Book and subsequently appearing in several hymnals, including Gather 3rd edition, Worship 4th edition and Oramos Cantando: We Pray in Song, is:
    1 How good, Lord, to be here!
    Your glory fills the night;
    Your face and garments, like the sun,
    Shine with unborrowed light.

    2 How good, Lord, to be here,
    Your beauty to behold
    Where Moses and Elijah stand,
    Your messengers of old.

    3 Fulfiller of the past
    And hope of things to be,
    We hail your body glorified,
    And our redemption see!

    4 Before we taste of death,
    We see your kingdom come;
    We long to hold the vision bright
    And make this hill our home.

    5 How good, Lord, to be here!
    Yet we may not remain;
    But since you bid us leave the mount,
    Come with us to the plain.

    Both the text and tune (SWABIA) are in the public domain.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen eft94530
  • SWABIA is also a very easy tune to catch on to.