HYMN FOR EASTER 6 Hold Me O Spirit, Most Holy/Grip du mig. helige Ande
- Gracia Grindal
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Finnish: Koskete, minua tua
Norwegian: Grip du meg, Heilage Ande
Swedish: Grip du mig, helige Ande
Text: Pia Perkiö (1944-) Ull-Britt Gustafsson-Pensar (1931- ). Tune: Ilkka Kuusisto (1933-)
1. Hold me, O Spirit most holy,
Touch me with flames of light.
Answer me as I wonder:
Which way is good and right?
2. Come, stir my heart, Holy Spirit,
Down to my very core.
Help me trust that Jesus
Will lead me safely forth.
3. Spur me on, Spirit most holy,
Make me secure and free,
Show me how to care for
Those who depend on me.
4. Send me your light, Holy Spirit,
So I can come to know:
How our Lord is working
As he did long ago.
5. I have been given a calling
I have some work to do!
Therefore, Holy Spirit,
Hear me sing thanks to you!
Tr. Gracia Grindal (2011)
REFLECTION
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to the disciples in this reading. He promises that he will send a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who will "teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." We need that Helper and it is a wonderful gift. Without it, Jesus would be a memory and lost to us in the past. With the Spirit present in us, we have life, and life with God. What a thing to know--that the creator of the universe has provided for us a way to be in intimate communion with him--actually live in us and with us. Our job is to study and pray so we can discern our calling as the hymn says so nicely.
The message of the hymn is that the Holy Spirit calls us into a vocation that works for the betterment of the community and the salvation of souls. We hear this language in Luther's Small Catehcism--that the Holy Spirit calls, gathers and enlightens us. We pray to hear that call. The Spirit helps us to discern what we need to do to bring Christ to the world. Through the Spirit, he is present: in the words we say, the things we do to help the neighbor, to say nothing of his presence for us in church. All these things utterly change the world. It is how our Lord reigns. Wht a thrilling thing to know and live by. You have been given a calling: you have some work to do! Listen for the Spirit to tell you what that is!
HYMN INFO
This hymn tune is by the Finnish jazz player and prolific opera composer, Ilkka Kuusisto (b. 1933).. The tune which sounds like an old chorale in some respects, is also jazzy. If one searches on Youtube for either the Finnish or Swedish version of this song, one will find hundreds of recordings of it, almost all with the sound of jazz in the performance.
It is popular not simply because of the melody, which becomes an ear worm after a bit, but for the words by one of Finland’s contemporary poets, Pia Perkiö, a deacon in the Finnish church, who writes hymns and poetry for the church. Her hymn was translated into Swedish by an eminent literary scholar, Ull-Britt Gustafsson-Pensar. When I was translating it into English from Swedish, I kept close contact with Ull-Britt. A warm, grandmotherly force of nature, she would not let me get away with easy versions. She kept pressing me to get it right, especially the stanza about our calling. She did not want me to miss the specific language about vocation in stanza three through five, a strong emphasis in Lutheran theology. I love that kind of pressure: it always makes my work better. I met her in Trondheim at our international hymn society meeting in 2007. We were going to a meeting. As we walked along, I enjoyed her good humor and Swede-Finn accented English which is a particular sound that I have come to love. A scholar, and character, like many of the hymnologists in this group, she has spent her life studying the work of one of Finland’s greatest writers, Zacharias Topelius (1818-1898), among other things a Swede-Finn patriot, and writer of poems and hymns in Swedish.
Written in 1978 by Pia Perkiö, this Pentecost hymn has been unusually popular in the north. You can see that in the number of times it was used this Pentecost in Swedish and Finnish churches, many on line due to the virus. Perkiö has written poems and hymns for children, and librettos for a mission opera and a church opera.
Kuusisto has been an organist and choir director in the Finnish church for years as well as a conductor and composer for the Finnish Opera, one of the great opera companies in the world. Kuusisto comes from a musical family--his father composed and his son Pekka is a famous violinist and conductor.
LINKS
Finnish/Joel Haillikainen
Finnish/Viktor Klimenko
Finland/soprano Raita Karpo
Finland/Jazz trio
Norsk/Sondre Bratland
Swedish/Stefan Jansson jazz trio
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