"" (Tell all in need) is a Christian hymn with German text by

Friedrich Dörr Friedrich Dörr (7 March 190813 May 1993) was a German Catholic priest and professor of theology, who is known as a hymnwriter. He shaped the first common German Catholic hymnal, ''Gotteslob'', published in 1975. Life Friedrich Dörr was born i ...

written in 1971 to a 1662 melody by

Johann Rudolf Ahle Johann Rudolph Ahle (24 December 1625 – 9 July 1673) was a German composer, organist, theorist, and Protestant church musician. Biography Ahle was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia. While not much is known of his early musical training, he attende ...

. The song is part of the German

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 ...

''.

History

wrote the text of "" in 1971. He was a Catholic theologian who was influential in the first common Catholic hymnal in German, ''Gotteslob'' of 1975. The song appeared in the 2013 edition as GL 221, in the section for Advent. In the Protestant hymnal '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', it is EG 540. It is part of several songbooks.

Theme and music

The song is based on prophecies by Isaiah from

chapter 35 Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

. It is in five stanzas of six lines each, with the last two lines a refrain, "Allen Menschen wird zuteil / Gottes Heil" (All people will receive / God's salvation). The first stanza calls to tell those in trouble to take courage and to trust. The second stanza says that God is near to free from guilt and grant peace. The following stanzas, closely related to the prophecy, refers to desert changing to fields, blind people seeing, mute people singing, deaf people hearing, and lame people jumping. The final stanza looks forward to suffering turned to a meal of bliss ("Mahl der Seligkeit"). The much older melody, composed by

in 1662, was connected in 1704 to the hymn "", which is a morning song that reflects eternal light. Hermann Angstenberger composed a setting for four-part choir with organ and optional strings, published by Butz Verlag in 2016.

Usage

The hymn is used as a song in services for Advent, both in mass as in penitential services (''Bußgottesdienst''). It has been a topic of sermons. The first line, a call to trust, was used by

Hans-Josef Becker Hans-Josef Becker (born 8 June 1948) is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who was the archbishop of Paderborn in Germany from 2003 to 2022. Life Hans Josef Becker was born in , Warstein, Germany, on 8 June 1948. He completed his advanced l ...

, the archbishop of Paderborn, in a letter to every member of the diocese at the end of 2018, after a difficult year.

References

External links

* {{authority control 20th-century hymns in German 1971 songs Advent songs