Song for a Young Prophet (O the Word of my Lord)

This hymn, based on Jeremiah 1, was composed by English Roman Catholic religious brother, teacher and youth worker, Damian Lundy. It is sometimes known as "O the Word of my Lord" instead of the official title, "Song of a Young Prophet".

It was first published in Songs of the Spirit in 1978, and it is still available today in McCrimmon's Celebration Hymnal for Everyone and Catholic Hymns Old and New. These and similar books are the only sources of sheet music for the song which have been found so far.

The song is set to an unnamed tune, also by Lundy. This has a 4/4 time signature, and in the key of D the first few notes of the melody are FG A F D E_ with accompanying chords D / Em.

Performance notes with the original publication say that everyone sings the chorus, but the leader or cantor sings the verses alone.

Song of a young prophet superimposed over a colour sketch of the cross of the resurrected Jesus on a hilltop in glorious light

Downloads

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Examples

A professionally produced recording, sung by boy-choristers

Sung by a bible-class, guitar accompaniment

An instrumental-only version.

Lyrics

The full lyrics cannot be given here as the text is copyright. But they are available on this website.

The song has a four-line chorus which is repeated after ever verse. There are four verses, each three line long and each line has two phrases. A rough outline is:

Chorus
Oh the Word of my Lord,
Deep within ...

1 Before I formed you in the womb, ...

2 I know that you are very young, ...

3 And everywhere you are to go, ...

4 With all my strength you will be filled ...