O Love

Performed by the Grande Prairie Singers on April 9, 2024.
Composer Elaine Hagenberg writes that the hymn O Love was written by Scottish minister George Matheson in 1882 on the eve of his sister’s wedding and recalled the time, when, years before, his fiancée learned he was going blind and decided she could not go through life with a blind husband.
Hagenberg writes that “he faced a painful reminder of his own heartache and loss as he penned the words to the hymn.” In later years Matheson said he composed the poem in less than five minutes.