Recordings » Returning (2003)

Text: Deignan, 2000
To the tune: North Port – John Cennick, 1743, Original Sacred Harp, p.324

Original chorus:
I want a seat in paradise Glory Hallelujah!
I love that union never dies Glory Hallelujah!

New text:
My day for travellin’ home has come
Now all my earthly chores are done
Into the vastness now I go
On waves of peace my boat I row
All toward the light my spirit turns
Sweet fire of Christ for which it yearns
A mercy circles round my heart
Enfolding me in every part

And all the loves I’ve ever known
Open their arms to take me home
And all the saints who’ve walked with me
Now gather round to welcome me

Deignan, 9.11.72
Meditation on the Gospel of John, Chapter 14
I, myself, am the road
I am the truth and the life.

And my heart has become a pathway
for all who would come through me.
You must believe that I am in the Spirit
and the Spirit is in me.
The very words I say are not my own
but the One who works and lives in me.
The one who believes in me
will do the things I’ve done
and even greater things than these.

And what you ask in my name will be done
that I may glorify the Lord.
I will ask our God to send the one
Who will be with you always.
The Spirit of truth who is with you now
and will be ever in your hearts.

Deignan, 197?
Inspired by Job 19: 25-27

I believe that my Redeemer lives
And on the last day I will rise
And in my flesh I will see the face
Of the beauty that gave me my soul.
Alleluia. Alleluia. All glory be to God.
Alleluia. Alleluia. Creator, Spirit and the Word.
I know that I will see your face
And this hope is cherished in my heart:
That in my flesh I’ll rise in your embrace,

O Lover beyond every name.

Deignan, 2.12-15.01
Psalm 22: an aisling for my father, while he is dying.
My shepherd is the living God who watches over me,
And who leads my soul to the streams of living water.
My shepherd is the Lord: there is nothing I shall want,
All my soul needs is provided.
I am the Lamb of God,

And the Holy One shepherds me
To the lovely fields and the verdant hills.
Love is guiding me on.
Tho’ I wander in the darkness
And the shadows are threatening
No evil at all will befall me.
‘Tho I stray from the fold in my wayward wandering,
You seek me still and you bring me home again.
You bear me up to feast on the fruit of the tree of life,

And carry me high on your shoulders.
You bring me to the streams
That will quench my deepest thirst,
Through the vale of death,
To the rivers of Paradise.

A clean heart create in me, O loving God,
A steadfast spirit place within me,
that I may praise you.

Have mercy on me in your kindness, O God.
In your compassion heal my brokenness.
The sense of my shadow assails me, O God.
Loosen the bonds that so bind my mind.
Teach me the secrets of wisdom, O God.
And bathe my soul in sincerity.
Infuse me with joy and some gladness, O God,
And let my sad self rejoice again.
Do not deprive me of your spirit, O God.

Be thou my Savior, renew my life.
Save me from the way that is lifeless, O God.
Open my lips with a song of awe.
My sacrifice now is this heartache, O God,
For holocaust only brokenness,
Show me your grace and your favor, O God.
Rebuild the walls of my ruined life.
Make whole and make empty my soul-shrine, O God,
And let me offer my life again.

Deignan, 5.19.80
A Night Prayer at the Benedictine Grange
Be peace, Lord, be peace.
As the night falls around us,
Be peace, Lord, be peace.
Let your love be upon us.
Christ, light of the nations,
Keep our earth secure.

Christ, risen in glory,
Summon all those who sleep.
Christ, light in the darkness,
Guide us to the day.
Christ, spouse of our spirit.
We sleep in your embrace.

Deignan, 197?
Psalm 130, to Maryanne McFadden

Because the Lord is full of mercy
So full of steadfast love, God will save
Broken hearts from all their sorrow.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Yahweh
Lord, hear my voice.
Let you ears hear the voice of my pleading,
Lord, hear my voice.
If you never overlooked our sins, Lord,
Could anyone survive?

But in you we find a real forgiveness
And for this we give you reverence.
I wait for the Lord; my soul waits again
And my heart remembers the promise.
My soul longs for the Lord more than
Sentinels the coming of dawn.
As watchers wait for the dawn,
Let us put our hope in the Lord.

Deignan, 12.95
From a Celtic Death Prayer, Carmina Gadelica
A Wellfaring song for Bridie, our mother
You are going home this night
to your home of winter, home of autumn.
You are going home this night
To your home of spring and home of summer.
You are going home this night to your eternal home,
To your eternal bed, to your eternal slumber.

Sleep, O sleep, and away with your sorrow.
Sleep, O sleep, and away with your sorrow.
O sleep. O sleep, and away with your sorrow.
Sleep, O beloved, in the rock of the fold.
Sleep this night in the breast of your mother.
Sleep, O beloved, while she herself will soothe you.
Sleep this night in the arms of the vir-gin.
Sleep, O beloved, while she, herself, will kiss you.
Sleep, O sleep, in the calm of all peace now.

Sleep, O beloved, into the guided way.
Sleep, O sleep, in the love of all loving.
Sleep, O beloved, in the source of all living.
The great sleep of Jesus, restoring sleep of Jesus,
Sleep of Jesus’ wounds, sleep of Jesus’ grief.
The young sleep of Jesus, restoring sleep of Jesus,
Sleep of Jesus’ kiss, his peace and glory.
The sleep of the seven lights be yours, beloved.
Sleep of the seven joys be yours, beloved.

Sleep of the seven slumbers yours, beloved,
in the arms of Jesus, Christ of grace.

Deignan, 6.2.81
For the Grange community ,and for our brother John who is its heart
We make our way to our heavenly homeland
To the city of the living God. Alleluia!
In the new Jerusalem, we shall see a
Million angels rejoicing.

The assembly of the earth’s first-born
Shall gather for the festive morn.
Enrolled on heaven’s mystic dome
The names of creatures who’ve come home.
To the new mount Zion we have come,
Where all creation lives as one.
At last in heaven we shall see
The new church of the world set free.

Deignan, 8.16.94
A journeying prayer for Caoimhín, and for refugees and exiles everywhere.
Be the road that brings us home, O Holy One.
Be the open sacred highway to our homeland.
Be the path that leads us to the state of grace,
to the hospice that will heal all wounds.
When we’re on the narrow way
be our comfort night and day.
When in exile we are scattered all abroad

Let our sanctuary be your heart.
In the crisis and the strife
be a harbor for our life.
Send your angels as companions on our way
To direct our faring toward your heart.
We are pilgrims of the earth
ever coursing to re-birth.
When our pilgrim souls are weary from the way
be a Sabbath to refresh our hearts.

Call us onto still explore
All the promise yet in store.
We have set our faces toward Jerusalem,
to that city we shall build someday
with our fathers and mothers
our sisters and our brothers
our friends and our lovers, we pray.

Deignan, Mother’s Day, 5.5.75

For the mothers of Viet Nam
I will not leave you orphans.
I will come back to you,
And your hearts will rejoice
When I come to you, when I come to you.
I will lead you through the night of pain
and bring you to the day.
On your journey I’ll go with you:
I will be your way.

I will fall with you on battlefields,
so as to rise with you.
When in exile you’re scattered,
I will gather you.
Though your lands be taken from you
by the ravages of war,
with my mercy I’ll shelter you:
I will be your home.
Though your hearts begin to tremble

when your minds cannot perceive,
cast your lives on my loving care
and you will believe.

Deignan, 9.12.02
Text: from a poem by Ann Deignan, from Mythos Gate
In her honor.
I look down past the mythos gate each morning I arise
and through a fertile garden where each waking spirit sighs.

Dew across the virgin’s lips, stone and light and air,
as we whisper to the dawn our soul’s rebirthing prayer.
I am here once again after dreams dissolve
to see this day as each day reveals to me
the chorus of one endless hymn,
one unbroken song of gratitude, solitude
chanting in the dawn.