I agree with Kathy. The tune to which it's usually sung is even worse. Surely there are better hymns to the Sacred Heart?

We used to sing it at First Friday devotions at a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and since there are so few alternatives, I wouldn't rule out using it again.

I definitely disagree. Maybe it's not a good seasonal hymn, but many people have a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart, and this hymn works very well as the recessional hymn for the Feast, which can also be used as a Votive Mass throughout the year.

If we're going to have "hymns" I don't see why we should limit them to seasonal or Proper options. This one NEEDS to be in there.

Granted, it's tough to write about the Sacred Heart without getting descending into the maudlin, but I did a little research and found two somewhat more elegant texts that might serve as good alternatives to TJHAB. The first one is in Long Meter, Edward Caswall's translation of "Auctor beati saeculi":

Jesu, Creator of the world,
Of all mankind Redeemer blest;
True God of God, in whom we see
The Father's image clear expressed:

That selfsame love which made the sky,
Which made the sea, and stars, and earth,
Took pity on our misery,
And broke the bondage of our birth.

O Jesu, in Thy Heart divine
Shall that same love forever glow,
Forever mercy to mankind
From that exhaustless fountain flow.

For this Thy sacred heart was pierced,
And both with Blood and Water ran;
To cleanse us from the stains of guilt,
And be the hope and strength of man.

To God the Father and the Son,
All praise and power and glory be,
With Thee, O holy Paraclete,
Henceforth through all eternity.

The second is a little more on the romantic side than I would like, but it works (with the possible exception of "rapturous thraldom" in the second verse.) It's by a Jesuit father named "M. Russell", about whom I can find very little information (though he did publish an article in the Irish Ecclesiastical Review in 1907.) I believe (though I'll have to check this) that it's from a turn-of-the-century hymnal (now in the public domain) for the Apostleship of Prayer. The meter is 10.10.10.10.

Thy Kingdom come, O King of earth and heav'n,
Creator, Saviour, who our chains hast riv'n;
Oh, that all hearts would Thy sweet yoke embrace;
Reign in my heart forever, King of grace.

Thee will I serve, for he who serves Thee reigns,
Thee will I freely serve while life remains,
Till, free no longer, in Thy realm above,
Bound in the rapturous thraldom of Thy love,

Thhe as my King my soul at last shall hail,
No more to swerve, no more to faint nor fail.
O Father, take Thy weary wand'rer home;
O King of glory, may Thy Kingdom come.

Part of the problem with much of our devotional literature on the Sacred Heart is that it arises from the sentimentalist aesthetic of the 18th and 19th centuries. This is fine as far as it goes, but if all our poetry about the Sacred Heart is chock-full of "throbbing", "melting", "burning" and fervent exclamations of "Ah!", it has a way of putting the more unromantic people among us (such as myself) off from a very important aspect of Catholic theology and spirituality. What I would like to see are some English versifications of some of the medieval writings on the Heart of Christ, such as those by St. Gertrude the Great and St. Bernard of Clairvaux--sadly, my poetic prowess is hardly equal to the task. Perhaps some of the hymnodists on this list would like to give it a try?

Sorry for making my list debut in such a negative manner! Sometimes it takes me a while to think through what I meant to say.

As an anglo-catholic for the Feast, we would have sung:

To Christ, the prince of peace
And Son of God most high,
The father of the world to come,
We lift our joyful cry.

2 Deep in his heart for us
The wound of love he bore;
That love wherewith he still inflames
The hearts that him adore.

3 O Jesu, victim blest,
What else but love divine
Could thee constrain to open thus
That Sacred Heart of thine!

4 O fount of endless life,
A spring of water clear,
O flame celestial, cleansing all
Who unto thee draw near!

5 Hide us in thy dear heart,
For thither do we fly:
There seek thy grace through life, in death
Thine immortality.

6 Praise to the Father be,
And sole-begotten Son;
Praise, Holy Paraclete, to thee
While endless ages run. Amen.

Also, we would have sung the following (likely to the "wrong tune" for Roman Catholics "with the wrong versification to boot!"):

O Heart of Jesus, Heart of God
A source of boundless love,
By Angels praised, by Saints adored,
From their bright thrones above.

2 The poorest, saddest heart on earth
May claim thee for its own,
O burning, throbbing Heart of Christ,
Too late, too little known.

3 The very sound of those sweet words--
The Sacred Heart--can give
To the most lone and hardened soul
Strength to endure and live.

4 A mother may forget her child,
A father prove untrue;
A brother or a sister turn
Unkind and thankless too.

5 The hearts of men are often hard
And full of selfish care;
But in the Sacred Heart we find
A refuge from despair.

6 To thee, my Jesus, then I come,
A poor and helpless child;
And on thine own words, "Come to Me,"
My only hope I build.

7 The world is cold and life is sad;
I crave the blessed rest
Of those who lay their weary heads
Upon thy sacred Breast.

8 For love is stronger far than death,
And who can love like thee,
My Saviour, whose appealing Heart
Broke on the cross for me?

9 The purest, deepest earthly love,
What is it, Lord, to thine?
A single drop from the great fount,
Eternal and sublime.

Again, I would prefer that this hymn BE included. But a better hymn, in many of our hymnals now, would be "All Ye Who Seek a Comfort Sure" to Kingsfold. I don't know about the copyrights on it, though.

Ken of Sarum: I am a member of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston, a wonderful parish of the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite. My email is vincentuher3@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kingsfold = RVW = © unfortunately. ;(

KINGSFOLD was originally "The Red Barn, or, The Murder of Maria Martin".

A murder ballad!!! Awesomenesssssss! I can see why this crucial little bit of information has gone largely unmentioned. :)

Here's the true crime info, which actually included both a molecatcher and a dream of a ghost revealing where the corpse is hidden:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_Murder

Here's the English trad. lyrics:
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/song-midis/Murder_of_Maria_Martin.htm

You'll notice that the folk music mavens claim that it's part of the "Dives and Lazarus" tune family, along with "Star of the County Down". In fact, so does your man RVW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Variants_of_Dives_and_Lazarus

So fear not for the copyright status! This puppy is wayyyyyy public domain. (And clearly, I have to take back my remarks on another thread about folk tunes and bad arrangements by composers. I admit that RVW did know how to do it right, and that it was good that he did it often.)

Here's "Dives and Lazarus":
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch056.htm

RED BARN MURDER C.M.D. - Looks great on music programs!

BTW, why is this said to be copyright? The 1940 Hymnal, #101 says the arrangement occurred in 1906. Doesn't that clear it for the U.S. at least?

Yes, don't be fooled by the © mark on music. Look carefully every time!

Many times its the arrangement, and sometimes I think it is nothing more than the typsetting. (That would be the "particular layout" of a piece of music. i.e., the position of the notes and words printed in ink, and nothing more.)

Case in point:

Collegeville Hymnal, Page 361, Pange Lingua, the copyright bears the engraved "acc." after the word "Music" and before the "copyright symbol".

Well folks, there IS NO accompaniment on that page, just the melody. (gee, I wonder why!)

Now granted, we need then to ask, is there an accompaniment version floating around somewhere that is "attached" to this piece? Who knows? Do we care? No, for Pete's sake, this is a Gregorian melody! It didn't have an 'arrangement' for hundreds of years, and I suspect (although I have not seen it, so it could be something usable) that most of us aren't the least bit interested in finding the arrangement that Mr. Lapierre has generated. (Have you seen the arrangements of Gregorian Chant in the WLP for instance?)

So here is my question to all of you. Could one legally scan this page, delete the text and put in a PD text or one's own translation? Or, does the arrangement that is cited mean the typeset matter on the page?

Let me know what you think.

Befuddled again,

fk

That's exactly what I used to do - before I became computer literate, and got Finale. Now everything I do is in finale, with the same ratios, sizes, fonts, margins, etc. I think that's what we all envision for the PBEH.

Please note that we read an respond to your postings:

Thy Kingdom come, O King of earth and heav'n,
Creator, Saviour, who our chains hast riv'n;
Oh, that all hearts would Thy sweet yoke embrace;
Reign in my heart forever, King of grace.

Thee will I serve, for he who serves Thee reigns,
Thee will I freely serve while life remains,
Till, free no longer, in Thy realm above,
Bound in the rapturous thraldom of Thy love,

Thhe as my King my soul at last shall hail,
No more to swerve, no more to faint nor fail.
O Father, take Thy weary wand'rer home;
O King of glory, may Thy Kingdom come.

Is now in the hymnal.

Noel, that's great! (Out of curiosity, what tune did the hymnal folks choose? For some reason, I keep hearing it in my head to EVENTIDE.)

And here's the link to a scan of the League Hymnal (1896), in which I found this and several other hymns to the Sacred Heart (some better than others, as always.)
http://www.archive.org/details/leaguehymnalaco00orggoog
Archive.org is a great place to hunt for this sort of thing, and I for one have lost many hours to it.

Also, if there's a choice of tune for TJHAB, may I cast my vote for the first tune in this volume (by F. M. de Zulueta, S.J.) over the second ("traditional") tune--or perhaps for a newly composed one? That chromatic slidey-sixthy thing makes my teeth hurt.

According to Wikipedia, "All copyrightable works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain". So did Ralph Vaughan Williams publish his arrangement of Kingsfold in the United States before 1923?

thnx noel. My daughter does the texting thing, but i do not. gives me a brain freeze. besides, i type faster than most people can text.