A few weeks ago on the Forum there was a discussion about the second stanza (“The flower of earthly splendor”) of Michael Perry’s “O God beyond All Praising” (a stanza which, by the way, the author prefers not to be included in his hymn). Yesterday Kathy Pluth’s “Let Easter Alleluias Fill This Place” was discussed. Both hymns have “sacrifice of praise” in their final line. Here’s another, Herman Stuempfle’s “O Christ, Your Heart Compassionate.”
The hymn was published in 2006 by GIA Publications in Dr. Stuempfle’s fourth collection, Wondrous Love Has Called Us! – Hymns, Songs and Carols. With his previous collections published in 1993, 1997, and 2000 this brought his published total at that time to more than 300 hymns. Dr. Stuempfle died in 2007 from ALS complications. Another collection of his hymns is scheduled for publication this summer.
The text was originally paired with the tune RESIGNATION, and has again been paired with it in Worship IV, no. 559. The text appeared in the 2006 Evangelical Lutheran Worship with ELLACOMBE.
Several commenters have asked to see more of Stuempfle's hymn texts. "O Christ, Your Heart Compassionate" is listed as one of three "hymns for the Church year" for the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (There are another eight hymns listed in Worship IV's liturgical index as being appropriate for the solemnity.)
The hymn was published in 2006 by GIA Publications in Dr. Stuempfle’s fourth collection, Wondrous Love Has Called Us! – Hymns, Songs and Carols. With his previous collections published in 1993, 1997, and 2000 this brought his published total at that time to more than 300 hymns. Dr. Stuempfle died in 2007 from ALS complications. Another collection of his hymns is scheduled for publication this summer.
The text was originally paired with the tune RESIGNATION, and has again been paired with it in Worship IV, no. 559. The text appeared in the 2006 Evangelical Lutheran Worship with ELLACOMBE.
Several commenters have asked to see more of Stuempfle's hymn texts. "O Christ, Your Heart Compassionate" is listed as one of three "hymns for the Church year" for the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (There are another eight hymns listed in Worship IV's liturgical index as being appropriate for the solemnity.)
O Christ, Your Heart Compassionate
O Christ, your heart, hompassionate,
Bore ev’ry human pain.
Its beating was the pulse of God;
Its breath, God’s vast domain.
The heart of God, the heart of Christ,
Combined in perfect rhyme
To write God’s love in human deeds,
Eternity in time.
As once you welcomed those cast down
And healed the sick, the blind,
So may all bruised and broken lives
Through us your help still find.
Lord, join our hearts with those who weep
That none may weep alone,
And help us bear another’s pain
As though it were our own.
O Christ, create new hearts in us
That beat in time with yours,
That, joined by faith with your great heart,
Become Love’s open doors.
We are your body, risen Christ;
Our hearts, our hands, we yield
That through our life and ministry
Your love may be revealed.
O Love that made the distant stars
Yet marks the sparrow’s fall,
Whose arms, stretched wide upon a cross,
Embrace and bear us all:
Come, make your Church a servant Church
That walks your servant ways,
Whose deeds of love rise up to you,
A sacrifice of praise!
Text: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr., 1923-2007, © 2006, GIA Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of GIA Publications.
Tune: RESIGNATION, CDM; Funk’s Compilation of Genuine Church Music, 1932