Please turn your hymnals to number 142 and join with the clarinets in, “In His Temple Now Behold Him”.
Number: 142
First Line: In His Temple Now Behold Him
Name: MANNHEIM.
Meter: 8 7, 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: In stately rhythm
Music: Friedrich Filitz, 1804-76
Text: Henry James Pye, 1825-1903
Clarinet Arrangement: 142-InHisTempleNowBeholdHim
This hymn is in celebration of something called, “The Presentation”. From the lyrics, perhaps we can gain a clue.
In his temple now behold him,
See the log expected Lord;
Ancient prophets had foretold him,
God has now fulfilled his word.
Now to praise him, his redeemed
Shall break forth with one accord.In the arms of her who bore him,
Virgin pure, behold him lie,
While his aged saints adore him,
Ere in perfect faith they die.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Lo, the incarnate God Most High!Jesus, by thy Presentation,
Thou who dids’t for us endure,
Make us see thy great salvation,
Seal us with thy promise sure;
And present us, in thy glory,
To thy Father, cleansed and pure. Amen.
Hm, a little creepy, and not entirely clear.
Off to google, then.
The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is an early episode in the life of Jesus that is celebrated by the Church on the holiday of Candlemas. It is described in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament in the Christian Bible.[1] Within the account, “Luke’s narration of the Presentation in the Temple combines the purification rite with the Jewish ceremony of the redemption of the firstborn (Luke 2:23-24).”[2]
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the presentation of Jesus at the temple is celebrated as is one of the twelve Great Feasts, and is sometimes called Hypapante (Ὑπαπαντή, lit., “Meeting” in Greek). In Western Christianity, the traditional name for the day is Candlemas, which is also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord. In some liturgical churches, Vespers (or Compline) on the Feast of the Presentation marks the end of the Epiphany season. In the Church of England, the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is a Principal Feast celebrated either on 2 February or on the Sunday between 28 January and 3 February. In the Catholic Church, the Presentation is the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.
In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church, the episode was also reflected in the once-prevalent custom of churching new mothers forty days after the birth of a child.
I guess this is more of a “Minor Festival” sort of hymn.
