The Beatitudes (Blessed are the poor in spirit) - Kearney

This folk-style hymn is based on Matthew 5: 3-12 (The Beatitudes).

It was written in 1966 by Australian Roman Catholic Peter Kearney (b 1947), when he was a nineteen year old student at the the Sydney University in Australia, with the encouragement of chaplain Fr. Ted Kennedy. It was included in "Songs of Brotherhood" a music book of Kearney's songs which was released by J. Albert & Son, Sydney in 1967 (ref), and in his later collection "Where is Your Song my Lord".

It is set to an unnamed tune, also by Kearney. This has a 4/4 time signature. In the key of G, the first few notes of the melody are G GG_ F E EE_. It is unusual in that the tune has A and B parts, but neither of them is a chorus: the overall structure of the song is ABABA.

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Examples

Singer with organ:

Lyrics

The lyrics are copyright so cannot be reproduced here. But they are currently available on this website. A rough outline is:

1 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is ....

2 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice ...

3 Blessed are they that mourn ...

4 Blessed are you .... .

5 Blessed are the merciful ...