"" (Lord, make us strong) is a Christian hymn in German with text by Anna Martina Gottschick written in 1972. The hymn for the end of the church year is sung to the melody "Sine Nomine" by

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

. It is contained in the Catholic hymnal ''

Gotteslob ''Gotteslob'' ("Praise of God") is the title of the hymnbook authorized by the Catholic dioceses in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, Luxembourg and Liège, Belgium. First published in Advent 2013, it is the current official hymnal for German-speaki ...

'', concluded with an added sixth

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

Jürgen Henkys Jürgen Henkys (6 November 1929 – 22 October 2015) was a German Protestant minister and theologian. Henkys was born in , Ostpreußen, Germany. He became a lecturer at the Sprachenkonvikt in East Berlin and the Professor for Practical Theology at ...

. The first line is "Herr, mach uns stark im Mut, der dich bekennt" (Lord, make us strong in courage to confess you).

History

"" was written by Anna Martina Gottschick (1914–1995) in 1972. Gottschick grew up in a Protestant pastor's house and became a journalist. As the composer

Heinz Werner Zimmermann Heinz Werner Zimmermann (11 August 1930 – 25 January 2022) was a German composer, focused on contemporary sacred music. He was professor of composition at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing A ...

had suggested, she wrote the text to match the 1906 melody "Sine Nomine" by

used popular in "

For All the Saints "For All the Saints" was written as a processional hymn by William Walsham How, who was ultimately the Anglican Bishop of Wakefield. The hymn was first printed in ''Hymns for Saints' Days, and Other Hymns'', by Earl Nelson, 1864. Tune The hymn ...

", to make that melody available to German church singing. While "For All the Saints" is a hymn for

All Saints' Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the church, whether they are know ...

with text by Bishop

William Walsham How William Walsham How (13 December 182310 August 1897) was an English Anglican bishop. Known as Walsham How, he was the son of a Shrewsbury solicitor; How was educated at Shrewsbury School, Wadham College, Oxford and University College, Durham. ...

, "Herr, mach uns stark" is a hymn for the end of the church year. The English hymn has three lines that rhyme, and a refrain of the word Halleluja, twice. The poetry expresses a longing for a different world, painting this world as a field of death (''Totenfeld''), in a wording taken from

Ezekiel Ezekiel (; he, יְחֶזְקֵאל ''Yəḥezqēʾl'' ; in the Septuagint written in grc-koi, Ἰεζεκιήλ ) is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ezekiel is acknow ...

37:1–10. Her concept had this description first, followed by three

s, all based on biblical motifs, that ended in a prayer for strength and courage to confess. Gottschick wrote in a 1987 letter that she thought of the Ten virgins, to whom Nicolai's hymn "

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme "" (literally: Awake, the voice is calling us) is a Lutheran hymn written in German language, German by Philipp Nicolai, first published in 1599 together with "". It appears in German hymnals and in several English hymnals in translations such a ...

" also refers, rather than of

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

s. The commission for the Protestant hymnal ''Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', however, used her final stanza also for an opening, before her original first stanza. They concluded the hymn with an added sixths stanza by

, who translated in 1988 a stanza from the English hymn. The hymn is contained in the Protestant hymnal as EG 154, In the Catholic hymnal ''

'', the same version is GL 552.

References

External links

Evangelisches Gesangbuch 154
l4a.org
Herr, mach uns stark im Mut, der dich bekennt
lieder-vom-glauben.de * {{authority control Catholic hymns in German 20th-century hymns in German