The title of this article includes a quote from Augustine when he speaks about music and hymns as a part of God’s harmonious beauty, and “a part of the whole universe”. Augustine’s perspective is a general aspect of the article, i.e., identifications of hymn and its capabilities from a theological and phenomenological point of view. Besides Augustine, Paul Tillich contributes to the discussion with his concepts sign and symbol. The second part of the article, framing the phenomenological issue, is a discussion of hymn as performative due to certain circumstances, such as a pandemic. The aim is not to empirically analyse the interaction of hymn and pandemic per se, but to highlight some issues in relation to a societal context. A hymn by Anders Frostenson is analysed as an example of how a hymn, rarely sung, can be uplifted as important due to specific circumstances, such as a pandemic. The view of hymns’ capacity of being performative is a premiss which is a basic view of the article, i.e., their potential capacity and eschatological ability to shape perceptions of a future in an act where the singer becomes co-creator (cooperatio). A third part, though not analysed in depth, is an argument of hymn as carrier of a critical capacity towards certain ideas within modernity and enlightenment.