Welcome to "Hymn of the Month!"  This month's hymn is the festive Easter carol "This Joyful Eastertide." The text was written by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934), a cleric of the Church of England. In verse 1, the text expresses the joy Christ's resurrection brings to believers; verse 2 expands on how that joy provides a sense of security throughout our lives; verse 3 highlights how this joy gives confidence even in the face of death (from Hymnary.com). It's a beautiful Easter carol that can be sung throughout the Easter season, which we will indeed be doing!

 The tune accompanying Woodward's text is "Vruechten," a seventeenth-century Dutch folk song. This jaunty melody contains several joyful melismas (a melisma is a series of notes sung to one syllable). I particularly appreciate and enjoy how the refrain contains a rising sequence on the word "arisen," thus allowing our voices to rise higher and higher with the word "arisen." Below is a video of our combined parish and children's choirs singing "This Joyful Eastertide" to a harmonization by Charles Wood (1866-1926), an English musician who worked closely with author Woodward.

We have sung this hymn in previous years, so it should be familiar to many of us. The compilers of our Missalettes, howeve, have decided not to include this wonderful Easter carol in this year's edition, so please be sure to pick up a copy of this hymn from the back of the church as you arrive for Mass.

1 This joyful Eastertide
away with sin and sorrow!
My love, the Crucified,
has sprung to life this morrow.

Refrain:
Had Christ, who once was slain,
not burst his three-day prison,
our faith had been in vain:
but now hath Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen;
but now has Christ arisen!

2 Death's flood has lost its chill
since Jesus crossed the river.
Lover of souls, from ill
my passing soul deliver. [Refrain]

3 My flesh in hope shall rest
and for a season slumber
till trump from east to west
shall wake the dead in number. [Refrain]