WOV #749, “When Love Is Found”
Devotion
Brian Wren is a hymn writer with a special concern and gift for dealing with matters of gender inclusively and poetically. “When Love Is Found” suits this week’s Old Testament and Gospel readings, with their common theme of woman, man and relationships prone to suffer strains and fractures. Wren writes with heartening honesty in the fourth verse:
When love is torn and trust betrayed,
pray strength to love till torments fade,
till lovers keep no score of wrong
but hear through pain love’s Easter song.
Wren’s language is contemporary, and yet has an enduring quality to it. He speaks of sin and trial without compromising a celebrative overall tone. Wren is also very sacramental, as is evident in the closing verse:
Praise God for love, praise God for life,
In age or youth, in husband, wife.
Lift up your hearts. Let love be fed
through death and life in broken bread.
Prayer
Gracious Creator, buoy us with sacrament and song. Amen.
Extracts are from "When Love is Found" by Brian Wren
(c) 1983 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Contact Hope Publishing Co. for permission to reproduce these words, www.hopepublishing.com