Jesus in the olive grove

Jesus in the olive grove. Fred Pratt Green* (1903-2000). Written in 1965 as a short poem on the Passion. In 1967 the author added seven preceding stanzas and a one-stanza conclusion, providing a hymn which spans the events of Holy Week. The full text, entitled ‘A Hymn for Holy Week’, beginning ‘All is ready for the Feast!’, is in The Hymns and Ballads of Fred Pratt Green (1982), pp. 8-9. The shorter version, entitled ‘Passiontide Hymn’ and beginning ‘Jesus in the olive grove’ is in 26 Hymns (1971), p. 31. In the both texts the stanzas provide pictures, like slides, from the Passion story. The reader must provide the narrative context for these ‘flashes’, which would be incomprehensible...