Guardian Angel from Heaven so bright ☼ (Notre Dame Hymnal)

The angels keep their ancient places-
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendored thing.

(Francis Thompson, "The Kingdom of God")

Reading these lines again reminded me of a favourite hymn from my early school days. Then going through my old tapes, I found "Sacred Music from the Church of the Holy Hand" (1990) with this very hymn on it.

The melody & text come from the Notre Dame Hymnal (long out of print). It's sung by the Choir of the Church of St Oswald & St Edmund Arrowsmith (Ashton in Makerfield, Lancashire) accompanied by organist, Richard Lea and directed by John Walton.

Below are the words, in case you'd like to join in!

☼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ A Ω ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ┼ ☼

1) Guardian angel, from Heaven so bright,
Watching beside me, to lead me aright,
Fold thy wings round me, O guard me with love,
Softly sing songs to me, of Heav'n above.

Chorus:
Beautiful angel, my guardian so mild,
Tenderly guide me, for I am thy child.

2) Angel so holy! whom God sends to me,
Sinful and lowly, my guardian to be;
Wilt thou not cherish the child of thy care?
Let me not perish, my trust is thy pray'r.

3) O may I never forget thou art near:
But keep me ever in love and in fear.
Waking or sleeping, in labor and rest,
In thy sweet keeping my life shall be blest.

4) Angel, dear Angel oh, close by me stay;
Safe from harm shield me, all ill keep away
Then thou wilt lead me when this life is o'er
To Jesus and Mary to praise evermore.

_____________________________________
* * * * * * * * * * * * A. M. D. G. * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Roman
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• RC
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• Holy
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• St
• Helens
• Merseyside
• Lancs
• Traditional
• Hymn
• Ripley
• Haydock
• Arrowsmith
• Angels
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• Ashton
• Makerfield
• Lea
• Walton
• Archdiocese
• Liverpool
• Beautiful

[paljim24]

My dad's cousin whom I've just met over the internet, like you do lol, told me about this hymn as he was telling me about guardian angels watching over me. It is beautiful and thanx for posting.

[TheReliquary]

Wow - that's amazing paljim24. Thanks for watching & commenting!

[Jive51]

During 5 minutes, I gone back in my youngest days... What a lovely travel during time. And you know what? I'm still the 9 years old boy, and it was a great gift to make it clearest in my spirit, thanks to this video.

5* and favorited.

[TheReliquary]

Cheers Jive51 - I feel much the same about this hymn!

Children are often frightened by stories of ghosts, witches and whatnot & I'm very thankful to my parents, priests & teachers who passed on their belief in a world filled with angels plus the special protection given by our guardian angels. It's a wonderful aspect of Christian (& Jewish & Muslim) belief that's worth celebrating!

[heartofmygod]

wow that is so well done.

[dottyb0103]

beautiful !!!!my memories of this hymn at school came flooding back and took away all the bad things going on in the world today, thank you for sharing x

[tonganfoilole69]

Love this beautiful hymn....awesome....

[benaggreyfynn]

Great hymn. God bless you for posting.

[josparkes1]

Very beautiful, love it, though my PC is playing up and the music is very deep and not so clear as it should be.

[97531go]

These are the most beautiful holy cards I have ever seen. Where can we purchase these!

Truly enjoyable and peace-making. What a delight

[YBPhotoeditor06]

Divine! I feel Noah regarded his 3 sons as 1. His 3 Blessings are related to this phenomenon. Sam's for the soul. Japheth's for the body. Ham being servant to his brothers can get both Blessings. Noah charged Japheth to stay in Sam's Tent, so that he could share his brother's Eternal God. As All 3 Blessings are 1 for mankind. I think to help Japheth is more important: It facilitates him to take the same Blessings as once both covered their dad's body totether. DAD created us similar to HIMSELF.

[ronwyl8]

Today is the Feast Day of The Guardian Angels (2nd October) so delighted to have found this beautiful old Catholic Hymn once again. Great presentation and music. Thanks

[Barbra32321]

Ahh, it's meant to represent a cat and it's designed to cheer people up everyone who sees it! Feel free to spread the happiness and...

Have a nice day paljim!

[paljim24]

What does your 'image' mean??