Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly

Fairest Child of Fairest Mother

Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly was written in 1938 by Roland Ford Palmer (1891-1985). It is adapted from a 1914 anonymous poem based upon the Annunciation. Fr. Palmer was an Anglican Priest. Born in England, he moved to Canada in 1905. He was a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican Religious Order that follows a rule of life and, at profession, members make monastic vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience. Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly is set to the tune Pleading Savior, first published in the The Christian Lyre (1830). In the Liturgy of the Hours, it is used on the Feast of the Holy Family.

 

SING OF MARY, PURE AND LOWLY by Roland F. Palmer, 1938 (Public Domain)

1. Sing of Mary, pure and lowly,
Virgin mother undefiled,
 Sing of God's own Son most holy,
Who became her little child.
Fairest child of fairest mother,
God the Lord who came to earth,
Word made flesh, our very brother,
Takes our nature by his birth.

2. Sing of Jesus, son of Mary,
In the home at Nazareth.
Toil and labour cannot weary
 Love enduring unto death.
Constant was the love he gave her,
Though he went forth from her side,
Forth to preach, and heal, and suffer,
Till on Calvary he died.

3. Glory be to God the Father;
Glory be to God the Son;
Glory be to God the Spirit;
Glory to the Three in One.
From the heart of blessed Mary,
From all saints the song ascends,
And the Church the strain reechoes
Unto earth's remotest ends.