Himig Heswita Music Ministry: How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place

Refrain

How lovely is your dwelling place

O Lord, mighty God, Lord of all.

Even the lonely sparrow

finds a home for her brood

and the swallow a nest for herself

where she may lay her young;

in your altars my king and my God.

(Repeat refrain)

Blessed are they whose dwelling

is your own, Lord of peace.

Blest are they refreshed

by springs and by rain

when dryness daunts and scathes

Behold my shield, my King and my God.

(Repeat refrain)

I would forsake

a thousand other days anywhere

If I could spend one day in your courts,

belong to you alone.

My strength are you alone.

My glory, my King and my God.

(Repeat refrain)

How lovely Your dwelling place,

Oh Lord mighty God,

Lord of all.

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said that music was the universal language of mankind. If that holds true, then the Himig Heswita Music Ministry uses this medium very well for the Lord.

It was around 1995 that I first read and eventually heard the voices of the religious that composed this Jesuit ministry.

Led by then Jesuit Brother (now a full pledged priest) Manoling Francisco, they have taken great inspiration from the works of another remarkable liturgical composer from a preceding era, E.P. Hontiveros, S.J. in creating worship songs for the contemporary generation.

The song above is a classic example of their earlier works. Based on Psalm 84, “How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place” was written by Arnel dC Aquino, S.J., a Tenor 1 member of the group. I think the vocal solo of the song’s original version was rendered by Bass 2 member RB Hizon, S.J.

The song is very personal to me. How many times during my life’s darkest days have I found peace and solace in God’s loving presence and abode. And it’s not far away in some mystic temple or hidden Shangri-la. As Arnel Aquino S.J. rightly puts it, “the world is God’s dwelling place.” Likewise he adds, “we are God’s dwelling place.”

Fr. Aquino further states:

“Our loving God is in the world which He creates and sustains in fantastic beauty. In the ripeness of seasons, God Himself enters human time and human history in the person of His Son, Jesus in whom He dwells in Spirit. God always longs to be with us. How then can we ever doubt that this God who constantly longs to be with us can therefore make each of us His very dwelling place?”

How many times like Fr. Aquino have I found myself listening or singing the abovementioned song deeply touched and on the verge of tears. He reveals moments he too is filled with emotion as other people also are, in singing his compositions “with such resonance and expression and tenderness all their own.” He wonders how could this be…how music created by others can become another person’s very own? I agree with his conclusion that ultimately, because the Lord resides in us, it is He who beautifully sings to us and everyone who cares to listen or sing along. Through the song, it is the Lord who speaks to us…who sings to us…”to make it your own.”

The CD jacket of their first compilation album inscribed the following description of the ministry’s members:

“Young men preparing for the priesthood who, somewhere in their prayers, stumbled into God in a way they never did before. And, for one brief moment, everything they saw - the beaming face of a child, a sudden rain, an empty chair, a stranger’s wrinkled hands - suddenly shimmered with God. In such a moment, what else can one do but break into song?”

Faced with the reality of God’s loving presence, how else indeed…

I share in their wish that as we listen to the beauty of their ministry’s songs which envelop their prayers, may it also guide you “to stumble into your God.”