• Duration: 4 minutes
  • Chorus: TTBB
  • Instrumentation: Organ
  • Published by: Novello & Co Ltd

 

Written for Mark Blatchly and the tenors and basses of the Charterhouse Special Choir.

O child that lies soft-
sleeping in my arms,
I shall keep you safe
from all that harms.
I know that your life
did not spring from mine;
and I know that
all I am is thine.

My craft is hewing,
joining, making good;
and now my end is
shaped and made by God.
A simple carpenter
my chosen trade;
and now my life is fixed
by powers that all things made.

Your being fulfills
a promise borne of dreams;
both innocence and fear
shall make my destiny.
By starlit night
your midwife I have been.
Your blood on my hands
the offering seals.

O child that lies soft-
sleeping in my arms,
I shall keep you safe
from all that harms.
I know that your life
did not spring from mine;
and I know that
all I am is thine.

 

Libretto: Andrew Hawes (1954 –   )

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