Composition
"Here I Am, Lord" was written by Daniel Schutte (b. 1947), a Jesuit musician, in 1981 as part of the St. Louis Jesuits collection that transformed post-Vatican II Catholic liturgical music. The hymn is a direct musical setting of Isaiah 6:8 - the prophet's response to the divine call - structured as a dialogue between the voice of God (verse) and the responding believer (chorus). Published in Glory & Praise (1984), it spread rapidly through Catholic and mainline Protestant worship and became one of the most widely used contemporary hymns in the English-speaking church.
Biblical Text
Isaiah 6:1-8 is the great prophetic call narrative: the vision of the divine throne room, the seraphim singing "holy, holy, holy," the prophet's cry of unworthiness, the purifying coal placed on his lips, and finally the divine question - "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" - and Isaiah's response: "Here am I. Send me!"
The hymn adds dimensions from other vocational texts: 1 Samuel 3:4 ("Samuel! Samuel!" - the child responding "Speak, LORD, for your servant is hearing"), Exodus 3:4 (Moses responding "Here I am" at the burning bush), and the pattern of Matthean call narratives in which the disciples immediately follow. The theological structure of the prophetic call - awareness of inadequacy overcome by divine commission - is the hymn's governing drama.
Creator and Legacy
The St. Louis Jesuits (including Schutte, Bob Dufford, John Foley, Tim Mannion, and Roc O'Connor) represented the most musically sophisticated Catholic folk-mass movement, combining liturgical theological formation with accessible contemporary musical idiom. "Here I Am, Lord" became their most widely known composition, eventually appearing in the hymnals of virtually every major Protestant denomination as well as remaining a Catholic standard. Its combination of prophetic urgency and accessible melody gave it a reach across denominational lines unusual for Catholic liturgical music.