We Cannot Measure How You Heal

We Cannot Measure How You Heal sung by the girl's choir of St Albans Cathedral in 2002.

We cannot measure how you heal

or answer every sufferer's prayer,

yet we believe your grace responds

where faith and doubt unite to care.

Your hands, though bloodied on the cross

survive to hold and heal and warn,

to carry all through death to life

and cradle children yet unborn.

The pain that will not go away,

the guilt that clings from things long past,

the fear of what the future holds

are present as if meant to last.

But present too is love which tends

the hurt we never hoped to find,

the private agonies inside

the memories that haunt the mind.

So some have come who need your help,

and some have come to make amends,

Your hands which shaped and saved the world

are present in the touch of friends.

Lord, let your Spirit meet us here

to mend the body, mind and soul,

to disentangle peace from pain

and make your broken people whole

This arrangement was written by John L. Bell and Graham Maule

from The Iona Community, to the traditional folk tune of Ye Banks and Braes.