Jesus Lives

I learned this at the Notre Dame Folk Choir reunion last weekend. The composer was the director of music for Gethsemani Abbey (Merton's monastery) and wrote this just before he died in Nov. 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2HqlMHmvU

Text:
Jesus Lives

Jesus lives; thy terrors now
Can, O death, no more appall us;
Jesus lives: by this we know
Thou, O grave, cannot enthrall us.
Alleluia!

Jesus lives: henceforth is death
But the gate to life immortal;
This shall calm our trembling breath
When we pass its gloomy portal.
Alleluia!

Jesus lives: our hearts know well
Nought from us his life shall sever
Life nor death nor powers of hell
Tear us from his keeping ever.
Alleluia!

Jesus lives: to him the throne
Over all the world is given:
May we go where he is gone,
Rest and reign with him in heaven.
Alleluia!

It gives me a chill and brings a lump to my throat every time I hear it or read these words.

I post it now for Angela, and for Judith Ann Holm, mother of my friend Suzanne, and for all the others I know who have died recently or have lost a loved one, especially in these days of remembrance, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.