First time I heard this song was sometime mid 60's when I joined Student Catholic Action club at my alma mater Paco Catholic School! I am now 71y.o and whenever I listen to this song through RUclips makes me feel emotional and nostalgia.! 2:12 To Christ Our King! Loyalty!!
I'm 80 and I haven't heard this great song in 60 some years. At St. Joe's High School, in Oil City, PA we sang An Army of Youth at the end of Mass every First Friday. We would really rock the building belting out that rousing song, backed up by the big church pipe organ. I wasn't much of a student but I loved singing that song. Kids today are really missing out if they are not being taught songs like this, we need them now more than ever.
I am 53 years old, and just heard this song for the first time today. I feel like I’ve been robbed of my birthright! Catholics need songs like this now more than ever, especially after two generations of mealymouth Kumbaya crap.
I learned this song in 1955 in first grade. It was taught and explained by Sister Mary a sacred Heart Nun in Croydon, Pa.. Thinking about it recently as I was ministering to a Catholic hospice patient. All those years ago. The same message. Same promise. Now in my late sixty's I think back to the true ministry these Nun's had. It wasn't to teach children, although excellent but to pave the way and truth for eternity forever. The Bible teaches us, "we will be known as we are known" in the Lamb's Kingdom. See you there Sister! Buck Smith
I am 86 years old and remember singing this hymn in the choir on The Feast of Christ the King at the Immaculate Conception church in Boston on Harrison Ave.over the years every so often I have hummed it the tune is great. Our choir came from The Home for Catholic Children across the street from the Church that in time the Jesuits tore apart. The Upper church was beautiful. Brother (Erhard?) could decorate wonderfully! Memeories!!!
I'm 72. Rain or shine, freezing or sweltering from 1958 - 1964 my school sang this hymn in formation every morning in the school yard. St Matthew's grade school in Conshohocken, PA was managed by ST Joseph nuns. If Mother Superior didn't think we sang it loud enough, she'd have a fit ringing a bell at the top of the stairs. We'd stand at attention and sing it again. Even at 6 years old, I'd just shake my head.
I am from the Philippines and I first sang this song back in my high school freshman year in 1966. This was the song of the Student Catholic Action (SCA). I thought all the while that this was written especially for the Philippine SCA.
If all the hymns singing every day for 13 years this empowered me in ways I didn’t understand at the time. I’ve sung it in my head thousands of times in my life. Today I did a search and found this! My Armour if God that I Wear each day is stronger than ever! Thanks and God Bless you!
My three sisters sang this song in the late 40's. They learned it at Lourdes High School in Chicago. I learned this fantastic song from them and I still sing it, (I'm in my late 70's now). We should definitely promulgate this Catholic Action Song, we really need it now.
I am 74 years old and remember singing this song back in the 1950's at Saint John the Baptist Catholic School in New Bedford, Mass with the Sisters of Mercy.
This song brings memories from our high school in the early sixties, Our Sister Consolatta and Father Joseph Vincent, were our Religion teachers, quess where, Puerto Rico. She was an Ursuline Sister, just like all the other nuns. Those were the best years of our lives and we will never forget any of them! We also sang this song in spanish, it started: Resuene la voz de la feliz juventud, en íntima graduación, loando al Señor, que nos regala su amor y nos baña con su luz, y en pago cordial por tan inmenso favor, luchemos por la verdad, por el bien, por la paz, por la fe y el amor de Cristo Rey! Colegio del Espiritu Santo (Holy Ghost School)
My whole family sang this song at Holy Cross School Curling (Corner Brook) Newfoundland. School was operated by the Sister's of Mercy, of Newfoundland. (Founded in Dublin, Ireland) Newfoundland was their first foundation outside of Ireland. Around 1851.
This song was written by Father Daniel Aloysius Lord, S.J. (1888-1955), then national director of the Sodality of Our Lady (a Jesuit sodality with roots stretching back to the 16th century). It was used during the Summer Schools of Catholic Action (SSCA) across the country. I'm so grateful you have recorded it and posted it here. It is a true treasure.
Ah yes, a good ol' post-war Catholic fighting song. We sang this every Friday in May at celebration for the Blessed Mother. Seems like there were always a few boys in each class who'd get in trouble by shouting out military commands (e.g, "Fire way, men!" at the end of the lines. But, this song sure beats some of the "Kumbayah tunes that followed V2. .
+Annie Tohill Yeah, we always outpaced the recording during the spirit week assemblies so there was always this awkward two-layer thing going on at different tempos.
This song brings memories in my high school days at Saint Mary's College now University. So happy.n grateful to be rear in a Catholic school under the CICM congregation .tnx I found this song. Tho I sang this song in one of my service mass as commentator in our Parish.
We recently lost dear Sr. Maureen O'Brien, BVM, St. Paul's, San Francisco, and I will forever associated this song with her. After a glass or two of wine, you wouldn't have to ask her twice to sing this Catholic Action Hymn. A dinner party always became more festive and fun after this. Mike H.
As a Sodality member, I really thought I was in an Army of sorts, "with the cross my only sword"! But my Dad really was in the British Indian Army and a POW in #ww2
I learned this in 1950 at Sts. Peter and Paul in the Bronx, where they had Catholic Youth Adoration one Sunday a month for all NYC Catholic high schoolers from the Bronx. The huge church would be filled! There was CYA in other boroughs as well.
Sts. Peter and Paul was a sister parish to St. Augustine in the Bronx when I was a teenager in the 1950s. I was part of Catholic Youth Adoration when I went to the High School of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Catholic youth used to sing this song (specially those belonging to catholic organizations engaged in social action) as I did so as an elementary student at Makati Catholic School. As we celebrate today the feast of Christ the King, it would be good to teach this song to our youth and us not so young to reaffirm the message of the song in our lives as we join the Christ the King celebrations today. The song is a call to Action to us Christians reminding us that we are soldiers of Christ our King, fighting his battle and must follow Him as he commands, as the Gospel today proclaims, that is, of being in solidarity with the poor, the least of our brothers who are hungry, thirsty, naked, ill and in prison and in the day of judgment God will ask us, “when I was hungry, did you give me food to eat; thirsty water to drink; naked and you clothe me.” This however, we often understand to be simply almsgiving. While the poor however need immediate help, they will remain poor, hungry and naked, unless we Christians address the root causes of their hunger and poverty: the unjust social structures which perpetuate their dehumanizing conditions. If we Christians do not work for justice in our country, our almsgiving as exemplified by some of our politicians, will just be an instrument to perpetuate their unjust and dehumanizing condition, an opiate for them to forget their true condition, a means to cover their exploitation. Most sadly, we and our church leaders have utterly failed in this respect.
We sang this in Fort Worth for Our Lady Sodality during school year and at Summer School of Catholic Action for youth held by Jesuits at Catholic Colleges - several locations. Fr Daniel Lotd, SJ would inspire and lead us in song - the one I attended for two summers was at Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio summers of 1948 and 1949.
This song was written in 1933 by Father Daniel A. Lord, S.J., who was a priest in St. Louis, at least for a while -- the Jesuit museum has or had an original score of the piece. I learned it when I was five or six, as a member of the Eucharistic Crusade, and never forgot the words -- nice to hear this vibrant rendition!
I went to St Raymond in Philadelphia '53-61. This was a mandatory song for May Procession every year. I never understood the inclusion of the word "comrades" which at the time was usually associated with the Red Menace from the USSR. This must have slipped by Senator Joe McCarthy's group. I heard an interview on NPR with Beth Nielsen Chapman and they played excerptsfrom her Hymns album. All the greats from the 50's Tantum Ergo and Salve Regina. Genitori, Genitoque Laus et jubilatio,
We sang it regularly in the 1960s in a Jesuit school in Hong Kong. This was the official song of the Sodality of Our Lady, which was later renamed as the Christian Life Community.
I learned this "Catholic Youth" hymn in the mid 1970s when I took organ lessons from our organist of 40+ years, on the 1898 A. B. Felgemaker pipe organ (Opus 664), in our former Sacred Heart Cathedral (now music center with organ intact), Duluth, MN U.S.A. The most beloved hymn of our former congregation was "Sacred Heart of Jesus, Fount of Love and Mercy" - #59 St. Gregory Hymnal (1940). More than 40 years have passed since those lessons, and I still play both pieces quite often at Mass! pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/6995
I learned this song in seventh grade when I was at Cascia Hall in Tulsa in 1957. We learned it in order to be part of a youth march in Oklahoma City (I remember practicing marching in military formation for the event). Catholics made up only about 1% of the population in Oklahoma at the time so I can only imagine what my fellow Okies thought was going on.
We used to sing this at my high school at at least the same speed. :) For whatever reason they always insisted upon playing the recording under us and we'd leave it in the dust every single time.
First time I heard this song was sometime mid 60's when I joined Student Catholic Action club at my alma mater Paco Catholic School! I am now 71y.o and whenever I listen to this song through RUclips makes me feel emotional and nostalgia.! 2:12
To Christ Our King! Loyalty!!
My grandfather was faithful to the Sacred Heart. I can still hear him belting out this song oin church.
I'm 80 and I haven't heard this great song in 60 some years. At St. Joe's High School, in Oil City, PA we sang An Army of Youth at the end of Mass every First Friday. We would really rock the building belting out that rousing song, backed up by the big church pipe organ. I wasn't much of a student but I loved singing that song. Kids today are really missing out if they are not being taught songs like this, we need them now more than ever.
Same here..
I am 53 years old, and just heard this song for the first time today. I feel like I’ve been robbed of my birthright! Catholics need songs like this now more than ever, especially after two generations of mealymouth Kumbaya crap.
I learned this song in 1955 in first grade. It was taught and explained by Sister Mary a sacred Heart Nun in Croydon, Pa.. Thinking about it recently as I was ministering to a Catholic hospice patient.
All those years ago. The same message. Same promise.
Now in my late sixty's I think back to the true ministry these Nun's had. It wasn't to teach children, although excellent but to pave the way and truth for eternity forever.
The Bible teaches us, "we will be known as we are known" in the Lamb's Kingdom.
See you there Sister!
Buck Smith
Loved this as a teenager and even more so now in my early eighties!!❤🎶🙏
❤
I am 86 years old and remember singing this hymn in the choir on The Feast of Christ the King at the Immaculate Conception church in Boston on Harrison Ave.over the years every so often I have hummed it the tune is great. Our choir came from The Home for Catholic Children across the street from the Church that in time the Jesuits tore apart. The Upper church was beautiful. Brother (Erhard?) could decorate wonderfully! Memeories!!!
God bless you.
I'm 72. Rain or shine, freezing or sweltering from 1958 - 1964 my school sang this hymn in formation every morning in the school yard. St Matthew's grade school in Conshohocken, PA was managed by ST Joseph nuns. If Mother Superior didn't think we sang it loud enough, she'd have a fit ringing a bell at the top of the stairs. We'd stand at attention and sing it again. Even at 6 years old, I'd just shake my head.
I am from the Philippines and I first sang this song back in my high school freshman year in 1966. This was the song of the Student Catholic Action (SCA). I thought all the while that this was written especially for the Philippine SCA.
If all the hymns singing every day for 13 years this empowered me in ways I didn’t understand at the time. I’ve sung it in my head thousands of times in my life. Today I did a search and found this! My Armour if God that I Wear each day is stronger than ever! Thanks and God Bless you!
My three sisters sang this song in the late 40's. They learned it at Lourdes High School in Chicago. I learned this fantastic song from them and I still sing it, (I'm in my late 70's now). We should definitely promulgate this Catholic Action Song, we really need it now.
I am 74 years old and remember singing this song back in the 1950's at Saint John the Baptist Catholic School in New Bedford, Mass with the Sisters of Mercy.
Love it! Why did i never hear this? 12 yrs Catholic school. Trad pastor. High school bldg named Pius X Hall.
Since Kinder 1970 to 4th HS 1981 been singing our school song...Christ the King College in Gingoog City...
This song brings memories from our high school in the early sixties, Our Sister Consolatta and Father Joseph Vincent, were our Religion teachers, quess where, Puerto Rico. She was an Ursuline Sister, just like all the other nuns. Those were the best years of our lives and we will never forget any of them! We also sang this song in spanish, it started: Resuene la voz de la feliz juventud, en íntima graduación, loando al Señor, que nos regala su amor y nos baña con su luz, y en pago cordial por tan inmenso favor, luchemos por la verdad, por el bien, por la paz, por la fe y el amor de Cristo Rey! Colegio del Espiritu Santo (Holy Ghost School)
Last heard this song in Fall 1964. Have been looking for it ever since.
My whole family sang this song at Holy Cross School Curling (Corner Brook) Newfoundland. School was operated by the Sister's of Mercy, of Newfoundland. (Founded in Dublin, Ireland) Newfoundland was their first foundation outside of Ireland. Around 1851.
We sang this at "Our Lady of Peace" in Wheeling, WV in 1962. I always loved this song. Still remember a good portion of the words.
This song was written by Father Daniel Aloysius Lord, S.J. (1888-1955), then national director of the Sodality of Our Lady (a Jesuit sodality with roots stretching back to the 16th century). It was used during the Summer Schools of Catholic Action (SSCA) across the country. I'm so grateful you have recorded it and posted it here. It is a true treasure.
Thanks for the info! I had no idea where it came from!
We sang this in our grade school/junior high catholic church choir in Indian Orchard, Mass (St. Matthew's Church). It roused our fervor.
Ah yes, a good ol' post-war Catholic fighting song. We sang this every Friday in May at celebration for the Blessed Mother. Seems like there were always a few boys in each class who'd get in trouble by shouting out military commands (e.g, "Fire way, men!" at the end of the lines. But, this song sure beats some of the "Kumbayah tunes that followed V2. .
I sang this song at the school of the Sacred Heart in Montevideo, Uruguay in South America in 1956/1963
We need more hyms like this to be sung at Mass! Inspire the militant church to battle!
We sang this in the 1960's. It was composed by Father Daniel Lord, S.J.
Pleasantly surprised to hear that it is still being sung.
I had the sudden realization when I was singing along to this that in high school I would usually sing this at twice the speed.
+Annie Tohill Yeah, we always outpaced the recording during the spirit week assemblies so there was always this awkward two-layer thing going on at different tempos.
I would have steered clear of your cross.
Praised be Jesus Christ our Lord, now and forever.
I was finding this song everywhere. We need to sing it for our Confirmation. It's a really great song!
This song brings memories in my high school days at Saint Mary's College now University. So happy.n grateful to be rear in a Catholic school under the CICM congregation .tnx I found this song. Tho I sang this song in one of my service mass as commentator in our Parish.
We sang this song in the late 40s and 50s at St Joseph Church in Yakima WA for Marquette Hi and St Joseph Academy high schools
We recently lost dear Sr. Maureen O'Brien, BVM, St. Paul's, San Francisco, and I will forever associated this song with her. After a glass or two of wine, you wouldn't have to ask her twice to sing this Catholic Action Hymn. A dinner party always became more festive and fun after this. Mike H.
SCAP!!!! I miss singing this song!!!
Dejavu--We used to sing this in grade school in the Bronx, back in the 1950s. Loved this song. So great to hear it again.
we sang this at St John's School, Canton Massachusetts I really like this song.
We sang this as our Student Catholic Action ( SCA) anthem, Graduated from high school 1970
As a Sodality member, I really thought I was in an Army of sorts, "with the cross my only sword"! But my Dad really was in the British Indian Army and a POW in #ww2
I learned it in 1957 at St. Clement School/Church in Philadelphia Pa.
Learned and sang this in Baltimore Maryland at Mount Saint Jpseph College ( NOW A HIGH SCHOOL) IN 1951 +
We sang this song in the late 1950's at Sodality meetings on once a month Saturdays in Milwaukee, WI.
I learned this in 1950 at Sts. Peter and Paul in the Bronx, where they had Catholic Youth Adoration one Sunday a month for all NYC Catholic high schoolers from the Bronx. The huge church would be filled! There was CYA in other boroughs as well.
Sts. Peter and Paul was a sister parish to St. Augustine in the Bronx when I was a teenager in the 1950s. I was part of Catholic Youth Adoration when I went to the High School of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Catholic youth used to sing this song (specially those belonging to catholic organizations engaged in social action) as I did so as an elementary student at Makati Catholic School. As we celebrate today the feast of Christ the King, it would be good to teach this song to our youth and us not so young to reaffirm the message of the song in our lives as we join the Christ the King celebrations today. The song is a call to Action to us Christians reminding us that we are soldiers of Christ our King, fighting his battle and must follow Him as he commands, as the Gospel today proclaims, that is, of being in solidarity with the poor, the least of our brothers who are hungry, thirsty, naked, ill and in prison and in the day of judgment God will ask us, “when I was hungry, did you give me food to eat; thirsty water to drink; naked and you clothe me.” This however, we often understand to be simply almsgiving. While the poor however need immediate help, they will remain poor, hungry and naked, unless we Christians address the root causes of their hunger and poverty: the unjust social structures which perpetuate their dehumanizing conditions. If we Christians do not work for justice in our country, our almsgiving as exemplified by some of our politicians, will just be an instrument to perpetuate their unjust and dehumanizing condition, an opiate for them to forget their true condition, a means to cover their exploitation. Most sadly, we and our church leaders have utterly failed in this respect.
More necessary now than ever.
We sang this in Fort Worth for Our Lady Sodality during school year and at Summer School of Catholic Action for youth held by Jesuits at Catholic Colleges - several locations. Fr Daniel Lotd, SJ would inspire and lead us in song - the one I attended for two summers was at Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio summers of 1948 and 1949.
This song was written in 1933 by Father Daniel A. Lord, S.J., who was a priest in St. Louis, at least for a while -- the Jesuit museum has or had an original score of the piece. I learned it when I was five or six, as a member of the Eucharistic Crusade, and never forgot the words -- nice to hear this vibrant rendition!
I went to St Raymond in Philadelphia '53-61. This was a mandatory song for May Procession every year. I never understood the inclusion of the word "comrades" which at the time was usually associated with the Red Menace from the USSR. This must have slipped by Senator Joe McCarthy's group.
I heard an interview on NPR with Beth Nielsen Chapman and they played excerptsfrom her Hymns album. All the greats from the 50's Tantum Ergo and Salve Regina.
Genitori, Genitoque
Laus et jubilatio,
I learned it in 1955, in New York!
I learned this song in 1952 at St. Bruno's in California.
We sang it regularly in the 1960s in a Jesuit school in Hong Kong. This was the official song of the Sodality of Our Lady, which was later renamed as the Christian Life Community.
ma swerte ako na sa christ the king college de Maranding ako nag aral!
in the Philippines, the Student Catholic Action of the Philippines (SCAP) uses this as our Official Hymn... here is the fast version...
SCA Hymn
Bless me JESUS CHRIST
I'm ready to restore the Papal States when I hear this!!
I sang this one in grade school
I learned this "Catholic Youth" hymn in the mid 1970s when I took organ lessons from our organist of 40+ years, on the 1898 A. B. Felgemaker pipe organ (Opus 664), in our former Sacred Heart Cathedral (now music center with organ intact), Duluth, MN U.S.A.
The most beloved hymn of our former congregation was "Sacred Heart of Jesus, Fount of Love and Mercy" - #59 St. Gregory Hymnal (1940). More than 40 years have passed since those lessons, and I still play both pieces quite often at Mass!
pipeorgandatabase.org/organ/6995
❤
I Like it
I learned this song in seventh grade when I was at Cascia Hall in Tulsa in 1957. We learned it in order to be part of a youth march in Oklahoma City (I remember practicing marching in military formation for the event). Catholics made up only about 1% of the population in Oklahoma at the time so I can only imagine what my fellow Okies thought was going on.
My confirmation is in Feb 1 and this is our ending song
(P.S. This is my favorite song and we sing this song like 1.25x the speed)
We used to sing this at my high school at at least the same speed. :) For whatever reason they always insisted upon playing the recording under us and we'd leave it in the dust every single time.
Have the image of christ the king
1 Maccabees 3:48
And laid open the book of the law, wherein the heathen had sought to paint the likeness of their images.
Sam Bee ok bye bye Protestant
st gabes grays ferry sung with fervor & Gusto height of the COLD WAR!!!!
Sorry, I Know I Should; But I Don't Remember This Song !!!
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing...