Calvin Seerveld (PHH 22) wrote this celebratory text for his own wedding ceremony (he married Ines C. N. ten Cate on Sep. 8, 1956, in Den Haag, the Netherlands). Because George F. Handel's JUDAS MACCABEUS was his fiancee's favorite tune, Seerveld wrote this text to fit that tune. A church choir from Hoorn, the Netherlands, helped the Dutch congregation sing the hymn during the ceremony. Set to Handel's tune, the text was first published in the Psalter Hymnal Supplement (1974).
"Praised Be the Father" is a wedding prayer that fittingly combines praise and petition. The stanzas are in a trinitarian pattern. Each one is structured in the design of a liturgical collect: the divinity is praised for some attribute or quality, petitions are made, and a doxology is sung.
Liturgical Use:
As a processional or initial hymn at wedding services; for renewal of wedding vows in family services with a marriage renewal emphasis.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook