On this House Your Blessing Lord

This song by Sister Marie Lydia Pereira (b. 1920) was first published in the 20th Century Folk Hymnal Volume 1 in 1976, and today is included under the title "On this Church Your Blessing Lord" in the 2008 Catholic edition of Hymns Old and New.

It has a number of variations in common use, eg "On this school ...", "On our church ... ", and the gift invoked can also be varied (blessing, loving, giving, calling, etc)

The song appears to be used in a number of schools in several countries in Asia that are run by the Loretto sisters.

It is set to an un-named tune with a 3/4 time signature. This was published originally in the key of Dmaj with the first few notes being D F A F F E E.

Examples

Instrumental - keyboard:

School choir, keyboard accompaniment:

Lyrics

The lyrics are copyright so cannot be reproduced here. But they are currently available on this website.

The song has four verses, each one following a similar pattern. A rough outline is:

1 On this house your blessing, Lord,
On this house your grace bestow.
...,
On this house your blessing send.

2 On this house your loving, Lord,
May it overflow ...

3 On this house your giving, Lord,
May it turn and ...

4 On this house your calling Lord
May it come to us ...