Come you faithful

(one verse introduction)

Come, you faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness!
God has brought his Israel into joy from sadness:
loosed from Pharoah's bitter yoke Jacob's sons and daughters,
led them with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea waters.

This the spring of souls today: Christ has burst his prison,
and from three days' sleep in death as a sun has risen;
all the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying
from his light, to whom we give love and praise undying.

Now the queen of seasons, bright, with the day of splendor,
with the royal feast of feasts, come its joy to render;
comes to glad Jerusalem, who with true affection
welcomes in unwearied strains Jesus' resurrection.

Neither might the gates of death, nor the tomb's dark portal,
nor the watchers, nor the seal hold you as a mortal:
but today among your own you did stand, bestowing
all your peace which evermore passes human knowing.

Words: John of Damascus (8thC); trans. John Mason Neal (19thC)
Music: St. Kevin, Arthur Seymour Sullivan (19thC)
Sequence: Dall Forsythe, Church of St. John the Evangelist