The anthem words are printed in this week’s special All Saints Day booklet, which you can take home and use for your personal devotion.
If there is one word to describe this week’s choir anthem, “Give Us the Wings of Faith to Rise,” it would be “ethereal.” The lyrics are not typical, ordinary, or predictable, but rather unusual and mysterious:
“Give us the wings of faith to rise within the veil, and see the saints above, how great their joys, how bright their glories be.” The second verse describes the saints’ victory, conquest, and triumph which they ascribe to the Lamb and His death, leading to the last verse for the ultimate culmination -- their promised rest.
Throughout the piece, the melody and chords use what we call “word pictures” to convey musically the idea of rising, ascending, leaping, and going higher – a low note followed immediately by a higher pitch, or a series of notes stepping up one at a time from low to high.
Listen for those low-to-high instances, especially at the very end of the piece when the piano part goes slowly higher and higher and higher, almost to the very top of the keyboard, giving the idea of rising up, and up, and up into the heavens where we will be in communion with the saints above.
by Becky Solomon for November 1, 2026