For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies.

Refrain:

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flower,

Sun and moon, and stars of light.

Refrain

For the joy of ear and eye,

For the heart and mind’s delight,

For the mystic harmony

Linking sense to sound and sight.

Refrain

For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth and friends above,

For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Refrain

For Thy Church, that evermore

Lifteth holy hands above,

Offering up on every shore

Her pure sacrifice of love.

Refrain

For the martyrs’ crown of light,

For Thy prophets’ eagle eye,

For Thy bold confessors’ might,

For the lips of infancy.

Refrain

For Thy virgins’ robes of snow,

For Thy maiden mother mild,

For Thyself, with hearts aglow,

Jesu, Victim undefiled.

Refrain

For each perfect gift of Thine,

To our race so freely given,

Graces human and divine,

Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven.

Refrain