‘We Weep for Gaza’s Children’ is a new hymn by the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

LOUISVILLE — “We Weep for Gaza’s Children” is a recent hymn by Presbyterian pastor and hymn writer the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette.

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The hymn is set to PASSION CHORALE, the tune for “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” The new hymn, the author writes, “cries out against the starvation of the children and families in Gaza” and is “a prayer that we will respond with advocacy,” because, as the hymn ends, “justice cannot wait.”

Biblical references include Psalm 89:14, Proverbs 31:8-9 and Matthew 7:9-11.

Permission is given for free use of this hymn in local churches. The music is here.

We Weep for Gaza's Children

PASSION CHORALE 7.6.7.6 D ("O Sacred Head, Now Wounded")

We weep for Gaza's children, for in the midst of strife,
they're suffering starvation; they barely cling to life.
We grieve that as a nation, when children cry for bread,
We don't give food to bless them; we give them death instead.

O God, we can't imagine a parent's pain and grief
When hungry, bone-thin children cry out for some relief.
Yet violence halts the sharing of food that people need.
This weapon of starvation — we're seeing it succeed.

We hear the children's questions — their trauma and their pain:
"When will this war be ending?" "Can we go home again?"
"Will we die fast or slowly when bombs fall from above?"
"Will there be bread here for me and for the ones I love?"

We grieve the awful violence — the awful hunger, too.
But then we sit in silence — we don't know what to do.
God, give us great persistence to speak and advocate.
For you're the God of justice, and justice cannot wait.