Scripture Verse

Why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven. Acts 1:11

Introduction

Words: The Ve­ne­ra­ble Bede (673–735) (Hym­num ca­na­mus glo­ri­ae). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Ben­ja­min Webb in The Hym­nal Not­ed, 1854.

Music: Tug­wood Ni­cho­las C. Gat­ty, in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 146 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Beata No­bis Gau­dia melody from Psal­ter­ium Chor­ale (Kon­stanz, Ger­ma­ny: 1510) (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Webb or Gat­ty (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
The Venerable Bede (673–735)

Lyrics

Sing we tri­um­phant hymns of praise,
New hymns to Hea­ven ex­ult­ing raise:
Christ, by a road be­fore un­trod,
Ascendeth to the throne of God.

The ho­ly apos­tol­ic band
Upon the Mount of Ol­ives stand,
And with the vir­gin mo­ther see
Jesu’s re­splen­dent ma­jes­ty.

To whom the an­gels, draw­ing nigh,
Why stand and gaze up­on the sky?
This is the Sav­ior!
thus they say,
This is His noble tri­umph day!

Again ye shall be­hold Him, so
As ye to­day have seen Him go;
In glo­ri­ous pomp as­cend­ing high,
Up to the por­tals of the sky.

O grant us thi­ther­ward to tend,
And with un­wear­ied hearts as­cend
Toward Thy king­dom’s throne, where Thou
As is our faith, art seat­ed now.

Be Thou our joy and strong de­fense,
Who art our fu­ture re­com­pense:
So shall the light that springs from Thee
Be ours through all eter­ni­ty.

O ris­en Christ, as­cend­ed Lord,
All praise to Thee let earth ac­cord,
Who art, while end­less ag­es run,
With Fa­ther and with Spir­it One.