I was at a prayer meeting last Wednesday and it was held in a church nearby. Once a month the two small evangelical churches that are on the same street in Verdun do a prayer meeting together. So I was sitting there and noticed that they used a different type of hymn book. In French we have the “Célébrons Dieu” (Praise/Celebrate? God) that is probably considered the equal of the English Hymnal or Hymn Book and there is one that is even older than the Célébrons Dieu, it is called, “Sur les Ailles de la Foi” (On the Wings of Faith). I opened the Sur les Ailles de la Foi that was in front of me and started to skim and scan the pages. Some songs were written in the 1500s! I love old prayers and songs, they often are more profound then today’s songs (often, not all the time…).

So yesterday I got a birthday present from my roommates. Guess what I got? A Sur les Ailles de la Foi! I found a song that sounded familiar (well, the words) and figure out that there was a French version of the “Wonderful Cross”! I have found the words quite good in French, especially the third verse, here’s the literal French to English translation:

Have we ever seen a love so great, (Vit-on jamais un amour si grand)

unite to hurt so extreme (s’unir à douleur plus extrême)

And the thorn, on the brow of a dying, (Et l’épine, au front d’un mourant)

shine like a diadem? (Resplendir comme un diadème?)

The English says pretty much the same thing (See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down, did ever such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown) but it feels as if it sounds worse and then outrageously glorious to me in the light of the comparison that’s done in French because of the word “mourant” (dying) that is not there in the English, and then the words thorns shining like a diadem. The English conveys the same wonder and glory, but it just hit me even more in an old, French version.