Moravians: ‘Hosanna, Blessed is He That Comes’

Palm Sunday. This coming week, Holy Week was a special time for my family as Moravians. Special memories of the Hymn “Hosanna, Blessed Is He That Comes” sung at the beginning of the Palm Sunday service and the concluding moving hymn “Ride on Ride on in Majesty.” I include both hymns in the post.

Holy Week, the week before Easter, often referred to as “Passion Week” by Moravians, is intended to be a full week of profound reflection, reverence and prayer.  The word passion comes from the noun translation of the verb pascho appearing in the gospels, where Jesus showed “himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3). There, the word passion means “to suffer,” particularly in reference to Christ’s sufferings and death.

Moravians gather every evening of Holy Week to read out loud from a harmony of the gospels, beginning with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with the burial. There are no sermons during Holy Week – just readings and congregational singing. A single hymn verse is sung in response to each passage read from the Bible – but, sometimes – there is silence.

Palm Sunday: The sixth Sunday in Lent is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Greeted by cheering crowds waving palm branches and proclaiming Him the Messianic King, Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey as prophesized in Zechariah 9:9. (Matthew 21:1-11)

The Hosanna Anthem is based on the phrase Hosanna and is a traditional Moravian Anthem written by Christian Gregor, a Moravian Bishop in 1765. It is sung Antiphonally or Alternately, and is, “a call and response song”. Traditionally, it was sung between boys and girls, or the entire congregation between men and women, where the men would call and the women would respond. For example, the men would call: ‘Hosanna, blessed is He that comes’. The women would respond ‘Hosanna, blessed is He that comes’.

Hosanna, Oak Grove Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC

Now the conclusion: “Ride On, Ride On in Majesty” | Graham George

Sung each year as the closing hymn for the Palm Sunday Service at Central Moravian, this stirring hymn captures the essence of the day; from the procession, with its “Hosannas” and palm branches, to the “approaching sacrifice.”

This is the Graham George version of the hymn, a bit different and darker than the Moravian version. Performed by the PlymouthChurch DSM

“Ride On, Ride On in Majesty” | Graham George

Wishing everyone a wonderful and Blessed Palm Sunday.