As today was the last Sunday before Lent, we said goodbye to the Alleluias at the end of the morning’s church service. As a family, we’ll be saying goodbye on Tuesday, when we both make, and put away, our “Alleluia Banners” for this year, (we’ll get them back out on Easter Sunday). No matter which day this practice is observed, I find the hymn Alleluia, Song of Gladness to be both beautiful and moving. I can’t help but get choked up over verse three!

Alleluia, song of gladness,
Voice of joy that cannot die;
Alleluia is the anthem
Ever raised by choirs on high;
In the house of God abiding
Thus they sing eternally.

Alleluia, thou resoundest,
True Jerusalem and free;
Alleluia, joyful mother,
All thy children sing with thee,
But by Babylon’s sad waters
Mourning exiles now are we.

Alleluia cannot always
Be our song while here below;
Alleluia, our transgressions
Make us for a while forgo;
For the solemn time is coming
When our tears for sin must flow.

Therefore in our hymns we pray Thee,
Grant us, blessed Trinity,
At the last to keep Thine Easter
With Thy faithful saints on high;
There to Thee forever singing
Alleluia joyfully.