Grant Now Your Blessing

Hymn Information

First Line: Grant now your blessing upon this offering
Author: Rolando S. Tinio
Tune Name: HALAD
Composer: Elena G. Maquiso
Arranger: Greg Scheer
Topic: Hymns That Are Prayer · Responses: To Offering · Elements of Worship: Offering

Copyright Information

Text Copyright

Public Domain

Tune Copyright

Reprint/Projection Information

Words: Please contact the copyright holder for permission.
Music: Please contact the copyright holder for permission.

Full Text

Grant now your blessing upon this offering
that we are bringing with our thanksgiving.
May you bestow, Lord, on us your children,
your grace and mercy. Amen.

Scripture References

2 Corinthians 9:15
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Ephesians 5:15-20
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Colossians 3:15-17
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Hebrews 12:1-3

Confessions and Statements of Faith References

Further Reflections on Confessions and Statements of Faith References

When we sing about the offering of our gifts, we quickly find several thoughts interwoven with each other. The first is the foundational thought that God’s generosity in Christ has brought us salvation and all good things in life. God has “created heaven and earth and all other creatures from nothing” (Belgic Confession, Article 12) and he continues to “provide whatever I need in body and soul” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 9, Question and Answer 26). But God’s greatest act of generosity is shown in the gift of his Son “by a most perfect love” (Belgic Confession, Article 20) through whom we find the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. This generosity of God is always in the background of each song in this section.

God’s children are called to respond thankfully to God’s generosity. Our gifts, therefore, take on the nature of a testimony of thankfulness to our generous God. We aim that “with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 32, Question and Answer 86). Indeed, all our living, including our gifts, are intended to show “how I am to thank God for such deliverance” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1, Question and Answer 2). It is natural, therefore, that our giving of offerings is accompanied with songs that express this gratitude.

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Grant Now Your Blessing

Additional Prayers

A Prayer of Acclamation and Petition

Loving God, you are known to bless. You pour out good will. Your pour out value on your creatures. Above all, you suffer to save. Follow our offering with your blessing so that it may do good for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

— Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

882

Grant Now Your Blessing

Tune Information

Name: HALAD
Key: e minor
Meter: 10.10.10.7

882

Grant Now Your Blessing

Author Information

Rolando S. Tinio, playwright, thespian, poet, teacher, critic and translator, marked his career with prolific artistic productions. Tinio's chief distinction is as a stage director whose original insights into the scripts he handled brought forth productions notable for their visual impact and intellectual cogency. Subsequently, after staging productions for the Ateneo Experimental Theater (its organizer and administrator as well), he took on Teatro Pilipino. It was to Teatro Pilipino which he left a considerable amount of work reviving traditional Filipino drama by re-staging old theater forms like the sarswela and opening a treasure-house of contemporary Western drama. It was the excellence and beauty of his practice that claimed for theater a place among the arts in the Philippines in the 1960s.

— National Commission for Culture and the Arts in the Philippines (http://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/national-artists-of-the-philippines/rolando-s-tinio/)

Composer Information

Greg Scheer (b. 1966) has composed hundreds of pieces, songs and arrangements. His music is published by Augsburg Fortress, GIA, Abingdon Press, Worship Today, Faith Alive and in numerous hymnals. He has won commissions from the Iowa Choral Directors Association, Iowa Composers Forum, Linn-Mar High School String Orchestra, Chagall String Quartet and Northwestern College. His electronic piece, "Crossfade," was included on the CD ...from everlasting to everlasting... His string quartet "6" was featured on WQED in Pittsburgh and was also a winning composition in the 2000 Southeastern Composers' Symposium. His hymn "People of the Lord" won the Calvin09 hymn contest and was subsequently sung and published internationally.

— Greg Scheer

Elena Granada Maquiso (1914-1995) was born in the Southern Philippines and educated at Silliman University in Cebu, Philippines, [sic: Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental (Philippines)],receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1948, and a bachelor’s of Christian education in 1949.

She continued her study in the U.S. at Hartford Theological Foundation, where she received her master’s degree in 1951 and doctor of religious education degree in 1960. She also studied from 1951-52 at the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York, where she received an advanced certificate from Advanced Religious Studies in 1958.

Beginning in 1952, Maquiso taught church music and Christian education at her alma mater, Silliman University, for the rest of her professional life. She served in several administrative posts in the university and received several special recognitions and teaching awards.

Her greatest contribution to hymnology was as editor of the Cebuano hymnal, Awitan sa Pagtoo (1973), which includes many of her original compositions and hymn texts. This hymnal is widely used today among Cebuano-speaking congregations.

— Hymnary.org