'Common Ground' Song 48 ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’
Words: traditional, Music © Wild Goose / Iona Community
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys6xaPVAmVk
Featured image: ‘I heart music’ from openclipart.org

We are back again to the sort of chant that is best sung unaccompanied, or with a solo instrument. The words presented here (and on the video linked above) are first in Spanish, then in English translation:

¡Santo, santo, santo, mi corazón te adora!
Mi corazón te sabe decir: santo eres Señor.
Holy, holy, holy, my heart, my heart adores you!
My heart is glad to say the words: you are holy, Lord.

As presented in Common Ground, the song is suggested for use at the ‘sanctus’ of the Mass, with additional verses offered for the ‘benedictus’ that sometimes follows it (‘In God’s name is coming the One whom we call blessèd: Hosanna in the highest, praise and thanks to God’), and for the Acclamation at the end of the eucharistic prayer (‘You alone are holy and you alone are Lord: and you alone are the most high, Jesus Christ our Lord’).

But the original is not restricted to this setting. This simple chant, in one or both languages, could just be sung repeatedly as a worship song in itself, to lead into a time of meditation, or as a response to bidding prayers. It reminds us that worship should always be ‘from the heart’, never just a repetition of the words on the screen. Which is why it is good to learn songs and hymns ‘by heart’, so that we can focus our attention on the heart’s adoration of God while the mind and voice muscles recall remembered words in the background.