Be Thou My Vision - Words & Music

OK, why have a complete blog site dedictated to just one song?

Well, I’ve been using a unique version of Be Thou My Vision as part of my worship set for years and it always has a profound effect on congregations and audiences around the world.

Be Thou My Vision is a traditional Irish Christian hymn, but is now sung in English-speaking churches around the world. In fact it is the world’s most popular Irish hymn.

According to Wikipedia it was written by Dallan Forgaill in the 8th century; although the text had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before the hymn itself was written. It was translated from Old Irish Gaelic into English by Mary E. Byrne in “Eriú,” Journal of the School of Irish Learning, in 1905.

As of this writing I have just returned from Eastern Europe where my band (A Perfect Stone) and I have been playing in such diverse venues as churches, bars, night clubs and orphanages. On each occasion we finished our set with our guitar driven, anthemic version of Be Thou My Vision.

Every single time it was a sublime moment. For the party goers of the bars and clubs it was amazing to see their response to His presence in the midst of worship that they didn’t realise was going on. Bono has described these kind of moments as ‘like God walking into the room’. For the Christian believers it was a profound intimate worship experience.

So this little blog project will document my love affair with this song and unpack some of it’s ongoing history.

By the way, if you’d like to download a free mp3 of our guitar driven version of Be Thou My Vision just fill in the form below and I’ll email you the download link.

Cheers - Andy Rogers

P.S Just so as you know, I take your privacy very seriously - your email address stays with me & no-one else.

I hate spam too!