Father Andrew: The Altar

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Dear children, each one of you has got some wilderness where you go apart and wrestle with your sins and fight your flesh and try to think and plan your life ideally ; each one of you has some Nazareth where you sweep up shavings day after day and do the same tiresome jobs ; each one of you has your mountain where you pray and wonder and hope ; each one of you knows something of the shadow of Gethsemane; and each one of you is going to some Calvary, somewhere, somehow, some day. Many have already found their Calvary.  Here at the altar of God we migle our life's experience with His life's experience Who for our sakes became man.

We, as I say, have our wildernesses, but no one of us has had forty days and forty nights of it, fasting, fighting with the fiend ; we have our Nazareths, but no one of us has been so fettered and so cramped as was the Divine Nature humbled beneath the disguise of a village carpenter among the envious people and the stupide people who could not understand His great soul and wondrous mind and His thoughts of God and man.

We have had our dark and difficult days, and we are going, each one of us, to a Calvary ; but no one of us has had a sweat of blood, no one of us can know what it must have been to hang on the gibbet of the Cross, first in the awful glare of the day and then in the awful blackness of the night.

I cannot think of a religion without an altar.  It is God's altar ; it is Christ's altar ; it is our altar.  Here we come to find the holy way of sacrifice and the strength to follow that way. 'I will go unto the altar of God. 

Father Andrew, S.D.C.

The Symbolism of the Sanctuary

'The Altar', pp. 16-17

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A Litany for Friday [Sursum Corda Prayer Book]

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O Lord, Who didst come to call sinners to repentance,
Call them still and make them answer Thy call.

Be merciful to those who have no cloke for their sin,
But have seen and hated both Thee and Thy FATHER.

Thou Who didst melt the hardness of the thief,
Soften the hearts of all who are impenitent.

Thou Who didst recover the woman that was a sinner,
Recover all those who have fallen away from Thee.

Thou Who didst call Zaccheus from the sycamore tree,
Arouse the careless and arrest the curious.

Thou Who didst speak the words of spirit and of life,
Enlighten the ignorant and teach the unlearned;

Dispel all prejudices, correct all errors,
Establish Thy people in the truth of the gospel.

Thou Who didst call S. Matthew from the receipt of custom,
Deliver many souls from the slavery of the world.

Thou Who didst pray for Thy murderers,
Pity those who oppose Thy rule and persecute Thy servants.

Thou Who didst cast out many devils,
set free many by the power of Thy grace,
who are possessed by the devils of drink and lust.
Deliver the victims of pride and anger, of greed and selfishness.

Thou Who didst satisfy the doubts of S. Thomas,
Deal gently with those who can scarcely believe.

Thou Who didst uplift the sinking S. Peter,
Support all those who are weak and unstable.

Thou Who didst come to proclaim deliverance. to captives,
Pity all prisoners and loose the chain of their sins.

Thou, Who didst heal the impotent man,
Uphold those who are weakened by past sin.

Thou Who didst still the tempest on the lake,
Rebuke the storms of passion and anger,
and bid the waves be still.

Thou Who didst heal the withered hand,
Recover for many the faculties which they have lost,
of prayer and work, of self-control and self-sacrifice.

Thou Who didst make both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak,
Open deaf ears to Thy message;
Loosen stammering tongues to speak words of penitence.

Thou Who didst put to shame the woman of Samaria,
Reveal to many who are living in sin the shame of their life,
and bring them to repentance.

Thou Who didst raise the dead to life,
Quicken dead souls to the life of righteousness.

JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
Who didst come to save Thy people
from their sins,
Save us, O SAVIOUR.
Hosanna!

from Sursum Corda

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen: Decaying Civilization

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“It is a characteristic of any decaying civilisation that the great masses of the people are unaware of the tragedy.

“Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives.

“Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because they have no standard outside of themselves by which to measure their times. If there is no fixed concept of justice, how shall men know it is violated?

“Only those who live by faith really know what is happening in the world; the great masses without faith are unconscious of the destructive processes going on because they have lost the vision of the heights from which they have fallen.”

The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Prayers from the Church of South India, Liturgy 1954

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Prayer of Corporate Confession

HEAVENLY Father, we confess that we have sinned against thee and our neighbour. We have walked in darkness rather than in light; we have named the name of Christ, but have not departed from iniquity. Have mercy upon us, we beseech thee; for the sake of Jesus Christ forgive us all our sins; cleanse us by thy Holy Spirit; quicken our consciences; and enable us to forgive others, that we may henceforth serve thee in newness of life, to the glory of thy holy name. Amen. 

The Prayer of Humble Access

WE do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, that our sinful bodies and souls may be made clean by his most precious Body and Blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

A Thanksgiving after Holy Communion

O ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who hast accepted us as thy children in thy beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and hast fed us with the spiritual food of his most precious Body and Blood, giving us the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of everlasting life; we thank and praise thee for these inestimable benefits, and we offer and present unto thee ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a holy and living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. Grant us grace not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may learn what is thy good and perfect will, and so obey thee here on earth, that we may at the last rejoice with all thy saints in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever. Amen.

"The Last Anchorite", a Documentary

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The marvellous documentary The Last Anchorite concerns the life of a Marxist atheist Australian who became a Coptic Orthodox desert monk, an anchorite.  This is perfect viewing for anyone keeping the holy Fast of Great Lent or the Season of Lent, and it will take less than 20 minutes to view.

Father Lazarus El-Anthony lives in solitude on the Egyptian Al-Qalzam Mountain in the pursuit of what the Desert Fathers called apatheia, holy stillness.

More videos of Father Lazarus El-Anthony are to be found on the Coptic Youth Channel on YouTube.

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The Glory of These Forty Days / CLARUM DECUS JEJUNII

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The Revd Maurice F Bell was a priest of The Church of England.  His translation of the hymn 'CLARUM DECUS JEJUNII' remains a Lenten standard among the English-speaking churches of the Anglican Communion.  I have also sung this translation in Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Western-rite Orthodox churches.  The original Latin is believed to be the composition of St. Gregory the Great.

THE GLORY OF THESE FORTY DAYS 

A Translation by the Revd Maurice F. Bell, 1906

1. The glory of these forty days

We celebrate with songs of praise;

For Christ, by Whom all things were made,

Himself has fasted and has prayed.

2. Alone and fasting Moses saw

The loving God Who gave the law;

And to Elijah, fasting, came

The steeds and chariots of flame.

3. So Daniel trained his mystic sight,

Delivered from the lions’ might;

And John, the Bridegroom’s friend, became

The herald of Messiah’s Name.

4. Then grant us, Lord, like them to be

Full oft in fast and prayer with Thee;

Our spirits strengthen with Thy grace,

And give us joy to see Thy face.

5. O Father, Son, and Spirit blest,

To thee be every prayer addressed,

Who art in threefold Name adored,

From age to age, the only Lord.

Chapel Choir of Trinity College, University of Toronto

CLARUM DECUS JEJUNII

1. Clarum decus jejunii

Monstratur orbi coelitus,

Quod Christus Auctor omnium

Cibis dicavit abstinens.

2. Hoc Moyses carus Deo

Legisque lator factus est,

Hoc Helyam per aera

Curru levavit igneo.

3. Hinc Daniel mysteria

Victor leonum viderat,

Per hoc amicus intimus

Sponsi Johannes claruit.

4. Hec nos sequi dona, Deus,

Exempla parcimonise,

Tu robur auge mentium

Dans spiritale gaudium.

5. Presta, Pater, per Filium,

Proesta per almum Spiritum,

Cum His per eevum triplici

Unus Deus cognomine. Amen.

The Liturgy forms man in wakefulness

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Dietrich von Hildebrand:

The man formed by the Liturgy is the man who is awake in the highest sense of the word. He is not only inwardly open to hearing the voice of God; he is not only aware of the ultimate Truth, but he also looks on all earthly goods in their true light. Far removed from all bluntness, indifference, stoic insensibility, and passiveness, his awakened ear is open to every created thing in its mysterious message from above and in its God-given meaning. His heart is open to the precious and noble character of created things such as water, for instance, as disclosed in the blessing of the baptismal water.

What a contrast to the blunt, obvious conceptions of earthly goods received from God's paternal hand is found int he liturgical "Benedicite!" What constantly awakened gratitude! "The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord, and Thou givest them their meat in due season (Oculi omnium in te sperant, Domine, et tu das escam illorum in tempore opportuno )." "Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty (Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona, quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi )." "We give Thee thanks, O almighty God, for all Thy mercies (Agimus tibi gratias omnipotens Deus, pro universis beneficiis tuis )." At the same time, everything is organically placed into relation with the supernatural so that our spirit can rejoin again and again the unique and eternal, the goal of our hope: "May the King of eternal glory make us participate in the divine banquet (Mensae caelestis participes faciat nos Rex aeternae gloriae )."

The man formed by the Liturgy watches, so to speak, with a "burning lamp in his hand," and "with girt loins," for the advent of the Lord. His life is a life of longing, hope, gratitude, solemn emotion, and openness to the mysteries of being. We see how deeply wakefulness is linked with reverence, with the consciousness that an adequate response is due to value, and with the sense of the right gradation of values. The awakened man is also conscious of the ultimate tie which binds him to all men before God; he sees Christ in his neighbor; he lives in the truth of the Mystical Body of Christ. To the extent that a man is awakened in this sense, he exists fully as a person; he genuinely lives; his life is true; he is a personality in the original sense of the word.

Today it is particularly important to stress this point. In a legitimate reaction against an analytical, self-reflective consciousness, many have fallen into the cult of a naive unconsciousness, a childish unwakefulness. This is a falling into Charybdis in order to avoid Scylla. A wrong self-consciousness is, of course, disastrous, whether it takes the form of a squinting at the accomplishment of our life (in a curious looking backward at our actions and attitudes just in the living moment instead of focusing on the object) or whether it takes the form of an intellectual analysis and dissection of the world and ourselves in which we no longer see the woods for the trees. In either case, it is a hypertrophy of the analytical attitude which leaves no room for a contemplative possession of an obejct. But the unconscious man also is incomplete; he is an inauthentic half-man.

True consciousness, an indispensable element of personality and an essential part of transformation in Christ, is nothing but wakefulness. It means emerging from all the mists of the vital and the unconscious into the brightness of the logos; it means being irradiated by the lumen Christi. It also means the ripening toward that full wakefulness which we shall actually possess only in eternity when we shall be flooded by the lumen gloriae, when we no longer see through a glass in an obscure manner but face to face, and when we no longer know in part but know as we have been known.

The great motto of this earthly life must be, "Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour!"

Dietrich von Hildebrand
1943
Liturgy and Personality: 
The Healing Power of Formal Prayer
Sophia Institute Press, 1993
pp. 101-103

Versions of Sub tuum praesidium

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In Greek from about 250 A.D. in the Coptic Church we read:

Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν,

καταφεύγομεν, Θεοτόκε,

τὰς ἡμῶν ἱκεσίας,

μὴ παρίδης ἐν περιστάσει,

ἀλλ' ἐκ κινδύνων λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς,

μόνη ἁγνή, μόνη εὐλογημένη.

In English this is:

Beneath your compassion,

We take refuge, O Mother of God:

do not despise our petitions in time of trouble:

but rescue us from dangers,

only pure, only blessed one.

The Church Slavonic of the Old Believers: 

Подъ твою милость,

прибѣгаемъ богородице дѣво,

молитвъ нашихъ не презри в скорбѣхъ.

но ѿ бѣдъ избави насъ,

едина чистаѧ и благословеннаѧ.

Beneath thy mercy,

we take refuge, O Virgin Mother of God:

disdain not our supplications in our distress,

but deliver us from perils,

O only pure and blessed one.

The Russian Orthodox version since 1586:

Подъ твое благоѹсробїе

прибѣгаемъ Богородице,

моленїѧ наша не презри во ωбстоѧнїй,

но ѿ бѣдъ исбави ны,

едина Чистаѧ, и Благословеннаѧ

Beneath thy tenderness of heart

we take refuge, O Mother of God,

disdain not our supplications in our necessity,

but deliver us from perils,

O only pure and blessed one.

Byzantine Christians sing this at the end of Vespers in Great Lent, and in other seasons the triple invocation Пресвѧтаѧ Богородице спаси насъ (Most Holy Mother of God, save us) may be added.

In Latin, we find this prayer in the following form at about the 11th c AD :

Sub tuum praesidium confugimus,

Sancta Dei Genetrix.

Nostras deprecationes ne despicias

in necessitatibus [nostris],

sed a periculis cunctis

libera nos semper,

Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

We fly to your patronage,

O holy Mother of God;

despise not our petitions

in [our] necessities,

but from all dangers

deliver us always,

O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.

I do not care for the English translation above. "Patronage" simply does not convey the depth of meaning of praesidium. I much prefer the English version of my Anglo-Catholic childhood:

We fly to thy protection,
O holy Mother of God;
despise not our petitions in our necessities
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.

Of the Annunciation and Microchimerism

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Ave Maria!

Ave Jesu Christe

I encourage you to read an older blog post written by Fr. Christopher Phillips regarding Micro-chimerism: 

click here.

I am struck by the implications of what it means that cells from the body of the Lord Jesus Christ would have migrated up into the brain of the Blessed Virgin Mary and elsewhere in her body. 

Likewise, the Blessed Mother's cells would have migrated into His body as she carried Him to birth.  Those cells would have been in His body on the Cross and rising from the Tomb.

I do not think many are prepared to discuss the theological implications of microchimerism and the meaning of the Son living his life in the Mother and the Mother living in the Son. But this Solemnity or Feast of the Annunciation, it is a worthy thing to ponder.

Let our pondering ensue.

Praying for Cardinal Pell: Psalm 44 (Coverdale)

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I am praying for Cardinal Pell.  Those who do not pray for him have abandoned Christian charity.  

The following is Psalm 44 in the Coverdale translation of the Psalms used by the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter:

Psalm 44. Deus, auribus.

WE have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us * what thou hast done in their time of old:

    2  How thou hast driven out the heathen with thy hand, and planted our fathers in; * how thou hast destroyed the nations, and made thy people to flourish.

    3  For they gat not the land in possession through their own sword, * neither was it their own arm that helped them;

    4  But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance; * because thou hadst a favour unto them.

    5  Thou art my King, O God; * send help unto Jacob.

    6  Through thee will we overthrow our enemies, * and in thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

    7  For I will not trust in my bow, * it is not my sword that shall help me;

    8  But it is thou that savest us from our enemies, * and puttest them to confusion that hate us.

    9  We make our boast of God all day long, * and will praise thy Name for ever.

    10  But now thou art far off, and puttest us to confusion, * and goest not forth with our armies.

    11  Thou makest us to turn our backs upon our enemies, * so that they which hate us spoil our goods.

    12  Thou lettest us be eaten up like sheep, * and hast scattered us among the heathen.

    13  Thou sellest thy people for nought, * and takest no money for them.

    14  Thou makest us to be rebuked of our neighbours, * to be laughed to scorn, and had in derision of them that are round about us.

    15  Thou makest us to be a byword among the nations, * and that the peoples shake their heads at us.

    16  My confusion is daily before me, * and the shame of my face hath covered me;

    17  For the voice of the slanderer and blasphemer, * for the enemy and avenger.

    18  And though all this be come upon us, yet do we not forget thee, * nor behave ourselves frowardly in thy covenant.

    19  Our heart is not turned back, * neither our steps gone out of thy way;

    20  No, not when thou hast smitten us into the place of dragons, * and covered us with the shadow of death.

    21  If we have forgotten the Name of our God, and holden up our hands to any strange god, * shall not God search it out? for he knoweth the very secrets of the heart.

    22  For thy sake also are we killed all the day long, * and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain.

    23  Up, Lord, why sleepest thou? * awake, and be not absent from us for ever.

    24  Wherefore hidest thou thy face, * and forgettest our misery and trouble?

    25  For our soul is brought low, even unto the dust; * our belly cleaveth unto the ground.

    26  Arise, and help us, * and deliver us, for thy mercy's sake.

     Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: 

     As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Mary the Dawn

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As I continue to ponder the Annunciation both as an historical event and as a living Mystery, a poem came back to mind that many of you may recognise as a hymn once sung in church. Perhaps it is still sung in your community or parish:

Mary the Dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;

Mary the Gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!

Mary the Root, Christ the Mystic Vine;

Mary the Grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!

Mary the Wheat-sheaf, Christ the Living Bread;

Mary the Rose-tree, Christ the Rose blood-red!

Mary the Font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;

Mary the Chalice, Christ the Saving Blood!

Mary the Temple, Christ the temple's Lord;

Mary the Shrine, Christ the God adored!

Mary the Beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;

Mary the Mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!

Mary the Mother, Christ the Mother's Son

Both ever blest while endless ages run. Amen.

Father Justin Mulcahy, C.P., (1894-1981)

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Uher Hymn: 3 Verses — the Annunciation

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John William Waterhouse

The following are three verses from a much longer hymn of mine upon the theme of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Elisabeth. These three verses are exceptionally appropriate for the Feast or Solemnity of the Annunciation. 

As the author I grant any Christian community or choir permission to print the following text provided it is for one occasion only and includes my name and copyright.

Lo, how she brings Life with her
Concealed beneath her heart,
Eve's daughter, brave and chosen,
God's partner to his art.
Her will knit with divine will
Desires his Word be done.
For God she weaves within her
The body of their Son.

All ages call her blessèd
Just as she once foretold.
Blest is she amongst women,
Her Child blest from of old.
Blest is she who believes God
Who carries God's true Word.
Her Son both God and human
Fulfils great Gabriel's word.

Our Saviour, God of mercy,
Remembers Abraham's fold.
Praise God who casts down tyrants.
Rejoice! Our God is bold.
So sing we with blest Mary
To magnify the Lord
Who raised up his handmaiden.
Oh, holy is the Lord!

Copyright © 2006 by Vincent William Uher III

This may be sung to the Bohemian Brethren tune Far Off Lands which can be found in The Hymnal 1940

It may also be sung to the lovely tune Wie lieblich ist der Maien

+Ave Maria!

"And there is no health in us"

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The phrase "And there is no health in us" is found in the traditional form of General Confession in The Book of Common Prayer 1662 (Church of England) and The Book of Common Prayer 1928 (Episcopal Church, USA). 

Because people today no longer understand that in English "health" can mean many things other than the wellness of the body, others have chosen to drop the phrase altogether from their Anglican liturgies.  The liturgy of the Pastoral Provision of Pope St. John Paul II known as The Book of Divine Worship dropped the phrase following from The Book of Common Prayer, 1979, USA upon which it was based in large part.

The Anglican Church of North America, a fairly recent denomination, is putting forward a new Book of Common Prayer, and they have decided to add a phrase intending to make the meaning more clear to an ordinary person: "apart from your grace, there is no health in us".

There are a number of essays on line about this decision. Generally, traditionalist Anglicans want no twiggling with the Prayer Book texts, but one can see that ACNA is concerned about ordinary people understanding what they are reading and praying.

An old friend who is a member of the clergy in ACNA asked —after the new texts were set in stone— how I would have handled the matter.  Now I am not a member of ACNA. I do not presume to second guess their committee or their bishops.  Any words that follow are simply the ramblings of one who has been called a liturgical dinosaur on occasion.

I suppose at first I would have taken the opportunity to broaden the Trinitarian dimension of the prayer with the words "... and without your Spirit, there is no health in us."  I can imagine a few objections to this phraseology... so, is there anything else?

If I had the concerns that ACNA has for the liturgy to serve an evangelical purpose in addition to the worship of God, a few possibilities come to mind: (1) "and within us there is no power to save our souls and bodies"; and, (2)(a) "and there is no power to save ourselves within us" or (b)"and there is no power to save ourselves within ourselves".

I like the first with the Anglican phrase "souls and bodies", and I like the feel of the repeated use of "ourselves" in (2)(b), but I think in the ACNA context (2)(a) may be more successful in trying to keep the shape of the 1662 phrase and meet the evangelical need for the stranger to understand.  

My friend prefers my text with the mention of the Holy Spirit. Another friend prefers the phrase (2)(b)"and there is no power to save ourselves within ourselves".  Another friend says all of these are terrible and the original is the only text an Anglican should use.  In other words, it was a very typical Anglican discussion with no one agreeing, and I should have stayed out of it.  (Lord, have mercy upon me, a miserable offender.)

Below I take ACNA's new text but insert my (2)(a) suggestion found above:

Almighty and most merciful Father,
we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep.
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. 
We have offended against your holy laws.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done,
and we have done those things which we ought not to have done;
and there is no power to save ourselves within us.
O Lord, have mercy upon us.
Spare all those who confess their faults.
Restore all those who are penitent, 
according to your promises declared
to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord;
And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,
that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, 
to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

Such a text would need repetition, community use, reflexion, etc. in order to see if it was successful. At this point, it is simply an idea after the boat has sailed.  And it does not scan as well as I would like.  Perhaps something like "apart from your Spirit, there is no health in us" would be better; it would certainly bring the entire Holy Trinity into the prayer in an explicit way.

I think ACNA's liturgical committee had a very difficult brief.  For their touchstone, they had to use the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (which has not been used in the USA since the late 18th century), and they had to hold in mind their evangelical imperative. So, for the purposes of their denomination I think they have fulfilled the task, and they have also granted broad permissions to their clergy and people to continue to use older Anglican liturgical forms.  That latter part is certainly the better part of wisdom, and they are compelling no one to use The Book of Common Prayer 2019 (ACNA).

I never had difficulty with the phrase "and there is no health in us" because I was an Anglican and not a Calvinist. I did not believe in "the total depravity of man", and I also knew the deep and rich meaning of the world "health" in the English language... "healthe" being the word Tyndale used from time to time in his translation of the Scriptures to signify the word "salvation" (which is the word we expect to read with our modern eyes).  

The most important point held in the phrase "and there is no health in us" is that we cannot cure or heal our souls or our condition. Only God grants deliverance, and only God gives salvation to us through Our Lord Jesus Christ.

A favourite Maronite prayer

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The following is one of my favourite prayers from the Maronite Liturgy. I have used an older translation than the one currently authorised:

The priest says,

Remain in peace, O holy altar, in peace I will return to thee. May the Victim who has been offered upon thee be for the forgiveness of by sins and the pardon of mine offences ; may it enable me to hold myself without stain or shame before the throne of Christ. Yet I do not know if I shall live to return and assist again at the holy Sacrifice. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, one God, who is the beginning and end of all things. Amen.

Repost of Uher Hymn: O Christ the King

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A reader kindly asked that I post again the text of my hymn for the 2nd Sunday in Lent (which was last Sunday).  I wrote this text with the tune SINE NOMINE in mind.  (The tune is most often sung to the the text "For All the Saints".) When sung in Lent, the final line is "Praise_ to Jesus! All praise and glory!"  If it is sung in Eastertide, the final line can be "Alleluia. Alleluia."

O Christ the King, the royal banners rise.
Thy Cross, thy standard we raise to the skies,
And hail thee, “Lord!” and bow before thine eyes.
Praise_ to Jesus! All praise and glory!

Transfigured thou upon the mountain’s height
Revealed the glory of the Bridegroom’s face
And showed to them thy purpose and thy Light.
Praise_ to Jesus! All praise and glory!

The Cross, thy throne where thou wast lifted high
Embracing all the broken world’s dark heart
Till blood and water gushed when pierced was thine.
Praise_ to Jesus! All praise and glory!

Death could not hold thee, nor a tomb contain,
O Love and Life, who now from heav’n dost reign,
The King of kings, the Lord who healeth pain.
Praise_ to Jesus! All praise and glory!

Copyright © 2006 by Vincent Uher,
Lenten version Copyright © 2007 by Vincent Uher
This text may be sung to the tune Sine Nomine

The text may also be rendered as follows and sung to the hymn tune UNDE ET MEMORES (Monk):

O CHRIST the King, the royal banners rise.

Thy Cross, thy standard we raise to the skies,

And hail thee, “Lord!” whom all shall recognise

God's glory shining from the Bridegroom’s face,
 Transfigured once upon the mountain’s height,

Reveal to all thy purpose and thy Light.

The Cross, thy throne where thou wast lifted high

Thou didst embrace the broken world’s dark heart

Till blood and water gushed when pierced was thine.

Death could not hold thee, nor a tomb contain,

O Love and Life, who now from heav’n dost reign,

The King of kings, the Lord who healeth pain.

Suggested Tune: Unde et memores (Monk) 10.10.10.D

Copyright © 2014 by Vincent W. Uher III