How is the hymn Abide with me used in Catholic Liturgy and private prayer?

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How is the hymn Abide with me used in Catholic Liturgy and private prayer?
I am asking since I started singing and playing it and wanted to know when it is to be used. Or is it more of an Anglican hymn? I have heard it is not even found in all Catholic hymnals in the English language. It is found in the Swedish hymnal.
 
The hymn appears in my 2011 Catholic hymnal, The St. Michael Hymnal, 4th edition. As for suggested uses, the hymn is listed in the hymnal’s Liturgy of the Hours Index under the heading “Evening.” It is listed in the hymnal’s Rites of the Church Index under the heading “Funeral.” It is listed in the hymnal’s Topical Index under the heading “Comfort and Consolation.”
 
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It used for Night Prayer (Compline) in my Divine Liturgy app. It’s a lovely hymn.
 
The author, Henry Francis Lyte was an Anglican cleric, poet and hymn writer. In the Church of England the hymn is popular for Evensong and is also quite often requested for funerals. It’s based on St Luke 24:29. The version found in modern hymnals is generally shorter than the original which has 8 verses. We sing it to William Henry Monk’s tune ‘Eventide’. (During WW1 it was a popular parody hymn amongst soldiers who sang it to the words ‘We’ve had no beer, we’ve had no beer today.’)

A couple of Lyte’s other well known hymns in the CofE are ‘Praise, my soul, the King of heaven!’ and ‘God of mercy, God of grace.’
 
It is in two hymnals I own, I’ve sung it at Mass.

As is mentioned it is one of the options for the Liturgy of the Hours.

It is a beautiful hymn, we need to sing these more often!!
 
I hadn’t heard of this hymn before, and just listened to it. Thanks for bringing the topic up, I agree with Phemie it is a lovely hymn!
 
TheMortenBay said:
Evensong. Is that Anglican speak for Vespers?
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Yes. Maybe also Catholic, I think it is Old English but is more used in the Anglican Church now. And certainly Catholic now with the Ordinariate.

And it can be lovely. At the first World Oblate Congress in 2005, we had Evensong (Anglican) one evening, and Orthodox Vespers on another. Both were sublime.
 
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It’s a combination of the words ‘evening’ and ‘song’.
 
Anglican Chant can be very beautiful when sung by a well trained choir. My little country parish church sans choir sings BCP Mattins once a month. We chant the Venite, Te Deum and Jubilate and there’s a collective sigh of relief when we reach the Gloria Patri. Fornunately we don’t torture the Psalm in the same way!
 
So in the Anglican Church this hymn is sung at Vespers and not Compline?
To me it is more natural to sing it at Compline.
 
The Anglican office of Evensong/Evening Prayer is a conflation of Vespers and Compline. We sing both the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis at Evensong. Evensong is still quite commonly sung in the Church of England as a form of corporate worship. Compline, when used, is more likely to be said as a private devotion before bedtime.

The writer of ‘Abide with me’ composed his own tune for the hymn but it was also sung to a couple of different tunes in the early days. When the Anglican hymnal ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ was being prepared in the mid 19th century, the editors felt that the tunes then being used were unsatisfactory so Monk composed ‘Eventide’ for it. Since then ‘Eventide’ is the only tune that Anglicans associate with the hymn.
 
The hymn lyrics as a whole point to death, eg where is deaths sting? Which can bring comfort to those mourning

Abide with me fast falls the even tide is going along the rest of the theme of the hymn to me it’s about our own mortality and need for God, also shortness of time we have, the day is ending night is approaching, rest, death is about rest in peace of Jesus.

(Eventide doesn’t have a specific meaning on its own as far as I know, just means evening)
 
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The lyrics:
  1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
    The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
    When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
    Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
  2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
    Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
    Change and decay in all around I see—
    O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
  3. I need Thy presence every passing hour;
    What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
    Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
    Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
  4. I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
    Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
    Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
    I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
  5. Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
    Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
    Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
    In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Abide_with_Me/
 
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