Sunday, July 29, 2007

Be Thou My Vision

Another "kenosis hymn" - a kenosis prayer.

What do you think?

What would a kenosis leader pray?

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Words: At­trib­ut­ed to Dal­lan For­gaill, 8th Cen­tu­ry (Rob tu mo bhoile, a Com­di cri­de); trans­lat­ed from an­cient Ir­ish to Eng­lish by Ma­ry E. Byrne, in “Eriú,” Jour­nal of the School of Ir­ish Learn­ing, 1905, and versed by El­ea­nor H. Hull, 1912, alt.

Music: Slane, of Ir­ish folk or­i­gin (MI­DI, score). Slane Hill is about ten miles from Ta­ra in Coun­ty Meath. It was on Slane Hill around 433 AD that St. Pat­rick de­fied a roy­al edict by light­ing can­dles on East­er Eve. High King Lo­gaire of Ta­ra had de­creed that no one could light a fire be­fore Lo­gaire be­gan the pa­gan spring fes­ti­val by light­ing a fire on Ta­ra Hill. Lo­gaire was so im­pressed by Pat­rick’s de­vo­tion that, de­spite his de­fi­ance (or per­haps be­cause of it­), he let him con­tin­ue his mis­sion­ary work. The rest is his­to­ry.

Source: The CyberHmynal



3 comments:

Bud West said...

Hi Jeff - You might want to add these to your music blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIo3IlE577A - A Vivaldi "Gloria" with period instruments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzQZAk5kA50 - Barber's Angus Dei

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1DfenKdgVk - Revelation 5, followed by a 34-fold Amen… It just doesn't get any better than this!

Also, I've been toying with the idea that rather than using relationships as a conduit to reach other ends (productivity, customer service, etc.), God's design is for us to use as a conduit to build agapao relationships as the end... That's org effectiveness as designed by the great commandments & golden rule.

Jeff said...

Thank you Bud.

You raise an interesting question concerning relationships as organizational means or organizational ends. I wonder how an organization whose expressed ends would be to love God and love people would structure itself?

And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
(Matthew 22:37-40 NASB)

Would it be possible to have a for-profit company which holds these objectives as its ends rather than profit? If so, are there any existing models? If no models exist, what could we imagine?

Thanks for the choral links. I'll be checking them out. - Jeff

Bud West said...

Hey Paul -

I made an argument to Bekker that in light of the Acts 2 pouring of the Spirit, the "whole law" probably includes any rules, regulations, procedures, etc., that believers come up with for any application. If that's true, one wonders why leaders of for profits who are believers don't already include love as the end.

As far as structure... I can't imagine that it would be any more difficult than saying kenosis and self-efficacy in the same sentence. :-) Seriously though, would the structure necessarily have to look any different? Carr and his group from GWU talk about conation or behavioral intentions in learning (I think he actually specifies it to resourcefulness in his solo work). So, why not behavioral intentions in loving? All other things being equal, would customers even notice whether agapao is the means or the end for the business serving them or would that be transparent?