Notre Dame Children’s Choir – The Children’s Choir, along with its satellite community choirs, educates over 300 singers from birth through high school in music literacy, vocal training, and choral music every week. They are dedicated to the revitalization of sacred music in the community, regularly singing in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and throughout the greater South Bend-Michiana area.
Today's song reminds us that the light of the resurrection reveals to us a God that is still hidden from our understanding. We are not discouraged by this realization but rather joyful in the mystery of the "dark, holy, hidden God." The lyrics of this piece bring us from God's very act of creation, to Jesus' incarnation on "shadowed stable floor," to the "coolness of the tomb" and the "thundercloud of [his] glory." It tells us that our salvation is an incomprehensible mystery, but it is a mystery that comes to us as a story. And that story can be shared, lived out, and retold again and again. "Hallelujah! Sing and tell the story!"
Lyrics
Joyful is the dark, holy, hidden God,
Rolling cloud of night beyond all naming;
Majesty in darkness, energy of love,
Word in Flesh, the mystery proclaiming.
Joyful is the dark, Spirit of the deep,
Winging wildly o’er the world’s creation,
Silken sheen of midnight, plumage black and bright,
Swooping with the beauty of a raven.
Joyful is the dark, shadowed stable floor;
Angels flicker, God on earth confessing,
As with exultation, Mary giving birth,
Hails the infant cry of need and blessing.
Joyful is the dark, coolness of the tomb,
Waiting for the wonder of the morning;
Never was that midnight touched by dread and gloom:
Darkness was the cradle of the dawning.
Joyful is the dark, depth of love divine,
Roaring, looming thundercloud of glory;
Holy, haunting beauty, Living, loving God.
Hallelujah! Sing and tell the story.
"Joyful is the Dark" composed by Hillary Doerries.
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For more songs, please visit Songs of Notre Dame: A Lenten Offering