Forgive Us - John McCutcheon

Little town that I was born in Early every Sunday morning

We’d drive past those fields of corn

That led us to Saint James

Planted in those hard oak pews

Your neighbors sitting next to you

Said the words each of us knew

As well as our own names

«Our Father,

Who art in Heaven,

Holy is your name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done.

Give us this day our bread.»

Then came the hardest part

The one that troubled every heart

Those haunting words of mystery

That long have followed after me Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive each other

In the long years since those days

My soul and heart have often strayed

But still I bow my life to pray

Those sweet, familiar words

But, oh, the meanings shift and dart

Whenever I come to that part

It stirs my soul, it stills my heart

Like nothing I have heard

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive each other

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us In that Pennsylvania town

That awful day, that awful sound

When madness struck the young girls down

A tale too often heard

These strangers from another time

They knew the grief, they knew the crime

But somehow, somewhere they could find

The strength to say these words:

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive each other

Sometimes what’s holy is so true

It’s standing right in front of you

Nothing you can really do,

There’s nothing you can say

Except to humbly take your place

And in every trial that we face

May we somehow find the grace

To live the words we pray

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive each other

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, as we forgive

Forgive us, forgive.