James Quinn (1919-2010), a Scottish Jesuit priest, published this hymn in 1969 in New Hymns for All Seasons under the heading "Gospel Verses." Quinn took the liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council to heart and built his hymns directly on Scripture, and they are sung across denominational lines. He named the sources himself: Isaiah 55:10-11 for stanza 1, where God's Word comes down like rain and does not return empty; the prologue of John for stanza 2, the Word made flesh; the Gospel miracles of healing for stanza 3; and for the close of stanza 4, "the double theme of John 6 (Christ as the Bread of life in his teaching and in his eucharistic presence)." The LSB companion hears Psalm 72:6 as well: "May He be like rain that falls on the mown grass." LSB made one change for the meter in stanza 3 and took another in stanza 4 from a 1995 hymnal, apparently without knowing that Quinn's own text read differently. The tune is Johann Rudolf Ahle's LIEBSTER JESU (1664), the melody of "Blessed Jesus, at Your Word" (LSB 904). LSB appoints the hymn as the Hymn of the Day for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026