Be Thou My Vision. I don’t know why this hymn has such an effect on me. Maybe it is my Irish DNA that sings out when I sing it. The words to Be Thou My Vision are a translation of an ancient Irish prayer and are set to an Irish folk melody. There is something about that combination that speaks to my heart. It is personal and sings of a personal relationship with the “Lord of my heart.” I am forever in God and God is in me. The hymn reminds me that God is all I need. I don’t need riches or the praise of men. God is my inheritance. It reminds me to put God first in my heart. When I sing the verse that begins, “High King of heaven, my victory won, may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun,” I feel the Holy Spirit within me and imagine singing together with the saints in heaven. May God be my vision now and forever.

-Lou Dawson, Alto