Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer

Author: Love M. Whitcomb Willis

Willis, Love Maria, née Whitcomb, b. June 9, 1824, at Hancock, N.H., and married in 1858, to Frederick L. H. Willis, M.D. She lived for many years at Rochester, N.Y., and now (1907) resides at Glenora, on Seneca Lake, N.Y. Her hymn:— Father, hear the prayer I offer [Aspiration] appeared in Tiffany's Monthly, 1859. In Longfellow & Johnson's Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, No. 558, it was given in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, as "Father, hear the prayer we offer," and as "Anon." The text was in great measure rewritten, probably by S. Longfellow. This 1864 text has come into somewhat extensive use in England and America, the latest to adopt it being The English Hymnal, 1906. For these facts we are mainly indebted to the Rev. W.C. Gannett, Rochester… Go to person page >

Father, hear the prayer we offer. [Prayer.] Given anonymously in J. S. Adams's Psalms of Life, 1857, No. 285, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines; in Longfellow and Johnson's Unitarian Hymns of the Spirit, Boston, U.S., 1864, No. 558, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines; in the Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865; Laudes Domini, 1884, and others; and, with an additional stanza, in W. G. Horder's Congregational Hymns, Lond., 1884.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)