Hymn of the Week: ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling’

This weekend our music director at my parish has this pegged for our Entrance Hymn for this last Sunday before Lent.

Wikipedianotes:

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley with a theme of “Christian perfection.”^[Judging by general repute, it is among Wesley’s finest: “justly famous and beloved, better known than almost any other hymn of Charles Wesley.” Judging by its distribution, it is also among his most successful: by the end of the 19th century, it is found in 15 of the 17 hymn books consulted by the authors of Lyric Studies. On a larger scale, it is found almost universally in general collections of the past century, including not only Methodist and Anglican hymn books and commercial and ecumenical collections, but also hymnals published by Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Seventh-day Adventist, Lutheran, Congregationalist, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic traditions, among others including the Churches of Christ.

Read on for some background on the text and the different variations on the words. And enjoy this great rendition from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!