Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent for Western Christians. Today's sound file is "Now Quit Your Care," a hymn text by Percy Dearmer (1867-1936) set to the French carol, "Quittez, Pasteurs," harmonized by Martin F. Shaw (1875-1958). The Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop recorded it on the audio cassette, "Music for Lent," in 1990.
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TEXT
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Now quit your care
and anxious fear and worry;
For schemes are vain
and fretting brings no gain;
Lent calls to prayer,
to trust and dedication;
God brings new beauty nigh.
Reply, reply, reply with love to Love most high.
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To bow the head
in sackcloth and in ashes,
Or rend the soul---
such grief is not Lent's goal;
But to be led
to where God's glory flashes,
His beauty to come near.
Make clear, make clear,
make clear where truth and light appear.
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For is not this
the Fast that I have chosen?
(The prophet spoke)
to shatter ev'ry yoke,
of wickedness
the grievous bands to loosen,
oppression put to flight?
To fight, to fight, to fight till ev'ry wrong's set right?
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For righteousness
and peace will show their faces
To those who feed
The hungry in their need,
and wrongs redress,
who build the old waste-places,
and in the darkness shine.
Divine, divine, divine it is when all combine!
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Then shall your light
break forth as doth the morning;
Your health shall spring,
the friends you make shall bring
God's glory bright,
you way through life adorning,
and love shall be the prize.
Arise, arise, arise! and make a paradise!