O Jesu Christe, wahres Licht

O Jesu Christe, wahres Licht. Johann Heermann* (1585-1647). First published in Heermann’s Devoti Musica Cordis (Leipzig and Breslau, 1630) in six 4-line stanzas. It was one of four ‘Thränen-Lieder’ (‘songs of tears’; cf ‘Herr unser Gott, lass nicht zuschanden werden’* and ‘Treuer Wächter Israel’*) in the section entitled ‘Zur Zeit der Verfolgung und Drangseligkeit frommer Christen’ (‘in the time of the persecution and distress of pious Christians’). It is found in both EG and Gotteslob (where it is much altered). The text in EG (72, in the ‘Epiphanias’ section) follows Heermann’s original exactly. It is a simple and beautiful hymn, pleading for light to those who do not know Christ, and for...