18 June 2012

Uninvited Editing

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One of the English contemporary prayers (authored by a certain excellent hand) I found especially effective in Masses for children and older youths was the alternative to the Prayer of Humble Access found in the ASB and is in Common Worship and other modern Anglican alternate prayer books.  Plenty of adult Anglicans love it as well.  It is normally printed according to line sense but I shall add it here in paragraph form:

Most merciful Lord, your love compels us to come in.  Our hands were unclean, our hearts were unprepared; we were not fit even to eat the crumbs from under your table.  But you, Lord, are the God of our salvation, and share your bread with sinners.  So cleanse and feed us with the precious body and blood of your Son, that he may live in us and we in him; and that we, with the whole company of Christ, may sit and eat in your kingdom.  Amen.

I have always wanted to change the last line to echo one of George Herbert's so that it reads "and that we, with the whole company of Christ, may joy and feast in your kingdom".  

To 'feast in the kingdom' covers sitting and eating, and in terms of composition, since the word "eat" is used previously with relationship to 'crumbs' ... doesn't it express the future hope of the kingdom with greater strength to say "joy and feast in your kingdom"?  I think so.
+Deo gratias.