Day 53 **Bonus Post** - Love came down at Christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLws2WvdXdM

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love divine;

Love was born at Christmas;

star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,

Love incarnate, Love divine;

worship we our Jesus,

but wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token;

love be yours and love be mine;

love to God and others,

love for plea and gift and sign.

When I realised that my contribution for Christmas Eve was to be a hymn, my mind immediately went to this carol from my childhood in Northern Ireland. Despite being very familiar with the lyrics from an early age, only in preparation for this piece was I reminded that the author was none other than Christina Rossetti. Her other hymns in Congregational Praise include “None other Lamb, none other Name,” “The shepherds had an angel” and most famously, “In the bleak midwinter.”

According to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, Christina Georgina was born in London on the 5th of December 1830. She was the daughter of Italian parents: her father became Professor of Italian at King’s College, London and Christina was educated at home, growing up in a cultured and artistic family. Two of her brothers, Dante Gabriel and William Michael, became members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of seven painters in 1849, and she was associated with the movement, though never permitted to be a member of it because she was a woman.

Her published works include four collections of poetry. In addition, she published several prose works. She wrote very few hymns avowedly for church worship, but several have been compiled from her poems and have found their way into several hymnbooks. Of the four included in Congregational Praise, I only recognised In the bleak midwinter and Love came down at Christmas.

Today`s carol is set in Congregational Praise to two tunes, Yuletide by Sidney Hann and interestingly, Rossetti, by Eric Thiman, considered one of the leading non-conformist organists in England and Musical Editor of Congregational Praise.

However, in the Revised Church Hymnary of my childhood in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the carol was set to the Irish air, Gartan, a traditional melody from County Donegal.

Love came down at Christmas presents the inviting image of incarnate Love descending to Earth and if one includes the word “lovely,” “Love is mentioned 12 times in three short stanzas. The original poem is based on 1 John 4:7-11, which begins, “Beloved, let us love God, for love is of God...”.

Professor Michael Hawn, Director of Sacred Music at Southern Methodist University Texas has said,

“This poem is the perfect antidote for those who find themselves recovering from the stress of the Christmas Season induced by materialism, extensive shopping, travel and multiple gatherings of family and friends – in short, everything except for a moment to reflect on the gift of `Love incarnate, Love divine,`”

Alan Kennedy