#318: Alleluia, Song of Gladness

Finishing this section is a hymn that's associated with Transfiguration/the lead-in to Lent. Lots of songs are written from the perspective of the speaker talking to God, and/or Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit. Many are written from the perspective of talking to the church community ("let's do this, let's be welcoming together.") A few are the speaker talking to themselves--this melody takes its name from the song "Praise, My Soul, The God of Heaven." And so on.

This song gets to be in the "awesome texts" category because it's the speaker singing about, and arguably to, a word; "Alleluia, you are sounding." "Alleluia, bring us to your jubilee." Because "Alleluia" is an expression of praise to God, and during Lent, we remove it from our liturgy entirely as we focus on repentance/fasting/somberness. And then bring it back in dramatic style for Easter. Sometimes we process a banner with Alleluias out of the church at the end of the service, or "bury" it for Lent. This was one of the "weird church rules" that I latched onto as a kid and who knows, maybe that's one source of my fascination with lipograms/constrained writing. (A very weak correlation, admittedly, but I think they still tickle the same part of my brain.)

Oh, and did I mention this is from the 11th century? So Christians in the west have been avoiding the "A-word" for a millennium. I love it.