The refrain of "For the beauty of the earth" is: "Lord of all, to Thee we raise / This our hymn of grateful praise." It goes along with the tune "Dix", a very stately little number. You can see that text in, for example, the Worship II book.
(And, by the way, while you're looking around, get a load of the composer.)
The editors at Oregon Catholic Press, however, have it: "Lord of all, to you we raise / this our gift of grateful praise." What gives?
Of course, there are two changes in that line, and I can understand one of them: some people want to replace "thee" with "you". I don't think it does any good, but at least there is a rationale behind it. So what's the rationale behind changing "hymn" to "gift"?
I'll tell you my suspicion: once the OCP staff got into the habit of removing references to "He" and "Him", they didn't know where to stop!
Anyway, the OCP publications are really shameless in their editing of classic hymns: they don't even bother to admit it when they do it. Most publishers mark an altered text with the notation "alt." next to the author's name. Not this lot. They expect us to believe that the PC stuff they stick into hymns is original: the perjurers.
Great post. That's an amazingly stupid edit on the part of the OCP folks.
Aside from the theological implications of such edits, people familiar with the authentic version are caught in midphrase, thinking - "HUH? What was that?" When they have to think about what just happened, the prayer stops cold.
Yes, OCP has a bad habit of changing lyrics but not changing the copyright date or credits -- it's deceitful.
I'm currently a student in Canada, living in a community composed of Americans, Canadians, Papua New Guineans and sundry and occasional Europeans. When we find a hymn that all of us know, it's nothing short of a miracle. But even those hymns common to us all, we've all grown up with different words - some more faithful to the original, some completely de-sexified and altered beyond belief. So much for the vernacular making liturgy easier...
If you want my slightly cynical but totally accurate opinion, I think that "hymn" was changed to "gift" because:
1. "Hymn" is passe and might remind people of what real hymns are supposed to sound like, instead of contemporary "ritual song." The opposition between "hymns" and "worship music" is made a big deal of in many modern liturgist magazines, if memory serves.
2. "Hymn" implies that we owe God something and are subservient to Him. This might make someone feel bad and lower their self-esteem. "Gift," on the other hand, implies that we are nice people for giving God something.
Those suggestions are only partly in sarcastic jest. I've been exposed to enough liturgically unhinged people to know that there are those out there who would approve of those reasons without a second thought. OCP, I think, is among them.
So, if confronted, will OCP claim that their lyrics are "fake but accurate"?
Dear RC,
Tin ears. Just like the translation committee for that abomination of a translation used at most Masses--these people haven't a clue about English nor about majesty. OCP hymnals are the campfire singarounds of Church Music--neither faithful, true, or certain, mostly done for laughs. A travesty.
(And changing thee and thou to you is a sign of just how bad off they are. They haven't any sense remaining of I and Thou. I suppose Martin Buber's book has been retitled to reflect our growing intimacy with the King of the Universe to "Me and You."
shalom,
Steven
You need to check what were the original words. In at least one older English (U.K.) hymnbook what was offered to God was sacrifice, not a hymn.
The refrain in the English Hymnal
published 1906
Christ our God, to thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
If you like that you may also like verse 6
For thy Bride that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
This pure sacrifice of love:
I don't like to defend OCP, but maybe they were returning to the hymns Eucharistic origins.