The title Seize the day! Seize God! is a translation of the first line in the refrain, ‘Carpe diem, carpe deum’. The second line, ‘Michael and all angels sing’, refers to the heavenly choirs. It also refers to congregations named after S. Michael. In this case Seize the day! Seize God! celebrates, in the first instance, 150 years at S. Michael and All Angels, Christchurch, New Zealand. For general use, the first meaning will be the most important.

Barry Brinson of Christchurch, organist at S. Michael’s from 1968-1972, wrote the music for this 3/4 time hymn. His tune is appropriately called ‘Michelmas’. The music creates a sense of tension and release. It is festal without becoming martial. The organ actively leads and provides a sense of drama. It is highly singable and also has a few surprises in the harmonies to keep the altos, tenors and basses and organist on their toes. This works well as a general hymn with five verses or as a processional hymn with all eight verses.

This hymn is both cosmological and psychological, both transcendent and grounded. It draws on seldom-used theological sources, yet is distinctly contemporary. The main source is Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, the Syrian 6thC mystical theologian. He coined the term ‘hierarchia’, from which we get ‘hierarchy’. Hierarchy has been the enemy of many reform movements over the last two centuries. However, the scholar Andrew Louth has suggested that for Dionysius, hierarchia was not so much about climbing ladders, but rather meant knowing who you are surrounded by, who you are in relationship with, and in so doing, to participate together in the divine. In contemporary terms, as already suggested, it is about the ecology of our relationships with all living things, seen and unseen. This interpretation helps make angels real in our world. So this hymn is relational and celebrates our mutual interdependence in the created order.

Beyond Dionysius, some ideas come from the inter-testamental literature, like Tobit and Enoch, which Christians and Muslims share. The idea that Michael weeps for the faithful (line 2, verse 5) is from the mystical Sufi strand in Islam. This image is a necessary corrective to the warrior aspect of Michael in the Book of Revelation emphasised by the medieval church and carried over uncritically into many Victorian hymns about angels.

©Jane Simpson

The writing of this hymn was supported by a grant of $1,000 from the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust.