From "Prayers Before Holy Communion"

The Wells Office Book, 1896

O Most Merciful GOD, grant me so to receive
the Body of Thy Only-Begotten SON, our LORD JESUS CHRIST,
and His most Precious Blood,
that I may be incorporated in His mystical Body,
and ever reckoned among His members.
And, O most Loving FATHER,
grant me that Him Whom I now purpose to receive under a veil
I may at length behold with open face,
even Thy Beloved SON, Who, with Thee and the HOLY GHOST,
liveth and reigneth ever one GOD, world without end.
Amen.

+ + +

Almighty and everlasting GOD, behold I approach the Sacrament of Thy Only-Begotten SON, our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

As sick, I come to the Physician of life :
As unclean, to the Fountain of mercy :
As blind, to the Light of eternal splendour :
As needy, to the LORD of Heaven and earth :
As naked, to the King of glory :
A lost sheep, to the Good Shepherd :
A fallen creature, to its Creator :
Desolate, to the kind Comforter :
Miserable, to the Pitier :
Guilty, to the Bestower of pardon :
Sinful, to the Justifier :

Hardened, to the Infuser of grace.
I implore therefore the abundance of Thine Infinite Majesty,
That Thou wouldest vouchsafe
To heal my sickness, to wash my foulness,
To lighten my darkness, to enrich my poverty,
And to clothe my nakedness,
That I may receive the Bread of Angels,
The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords,
With such reverence and fear,
Such contrition and love,
Such faith and purity,

Such devotion and humility,

As is expedient for the welfare of my soul.

Grant me, I beseech Thee, to receive not only the Sacrament of the LORD's Body and Blood, but also the virtue of this blessèd Sacrament. Amen.

Memorial

Who can tell thy lofty and eternal magnificence, O Word of God;

and who may comprehend thy voluntary self-emptying for us?

Who can narrate thy wonderful nativity from the Virgin, and who may weigh thy undeserved and voluntary sufferings, which thou didst endure and suffer for our salvation?

And who is sufficient to adore and celebrate the whole of this thy ministry of salvaiont for us?—

from The Liturgy of the Syrian Jacobites

The Liturgy leads us out towards Eternity

from The Mystery of Sacrifice, Evelyn Underhill

The Liturgy leads us out towards Eternity, by way of the acts in which men express their need of God and relation to God. It commits every worshipper to the adventure of holiness, and has no meaning apart from this. In it the Church shows forth again and again her great objective; the hallowing of the whole created order and the restoration of all things in Christ. The Liturgy recapitulates all the essentials in this life of sanctification — to repent, to pray, to listen, to learn; and then to offer upon the altar of God, to intercede, to be transformed to the purposes of God, to be fed and maintained by the very life of God. And though it is the voice of the Church, none the less in it is to be recognized the voice of each separate soul, and the care of the Praying Church for each separate soul “Holy things for the Holy!” cries the celebrant in the earliest liturgies, as he lifts up the consecrated gifts. Not “Good Things for the Good”; but supernatural things for those imperfect creatures, who have been baptized into the Supernatural, translated to another order—those looking towards God the Perfect and beginning to conceive of life as a response to God the Perfect; but unable without the “rich bread of Christ” to actualize the state to which they are called.

I will go up to the Altar of God;
Of God, who giveth joy to my youth!

The spirit of adventure, courage, vitality, zest are among the qualities of the good communicant. He is there because he has accepted his mysterious vocation; is prepared to embrace his great opportunity, respond to the awful invitation of God, whatever it may involve for him, with reverence, courage and delight. “Blessed be the Kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!” exclaims the Orthodox priest at the beginning of the rite. It is to this Kingdom and its interests that the worshipper looks. Each of these specks of consciousness is pressed from within, drawn from without, to the altar at which it is offered for the purposes of Love.

All the great petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are here to be carried through into action. The Liturgy declares and expresses the filial dependence of man upon God the Transcendent; it could not exist save in virtue of that link with the Transcendent. It is, from first to last, a hallowing of the Name of God. It calls man, the head of creation, to join with angels and archangels in adoring God. It opens the doors of the natural world to the coming of His consecrating and saving power. In it, the creature offers itself under tokens and without reserve for the purposes of His Will, is fed with heavenly food, reconciled and established in the Kingdom of Love, and subdued to the guidance and fostering care of the Unseen. Step by step, conduct, feeling, will and thought are quieted and transformed to this great purpose. By serial acts of penitence, self-offering, adoration and communion, the transition is made from the ever-changing world of use and wont to the world that is insusceptible of change.

As the life of Jesus proceeds at many levels, from that of perfect man to that of perfect God— “Ye are my brethren: I and the Father are one” —so does the life of the Liturgy proceed at many levels, whilst yet indivisibly one. And as souls at different stages of their growth enter more and more deeply into the significance of the Gospel, and learn to recognize the power and primacy of the Supernatural in and through the earthly acts and words of Christ; so with the Liturgy. Here too, the visible acts and symbols of the expressed religion—the offering, blessing and sharing of the Bread and Wine— stand in close relation to the necessities and simplicities of our Common Life; but they point beyond themselves and are increasingly realized as holy and significant, for they rest upon and manifest the deep union of the Church with God. Since the movement of the Eucharist is thus the movement of the Church’s life, and represents under symbols the very movement and meaning of all life, the individual soul can move with freedom within its majestic rhythms and figures. Its ritual actions provide, as it were, an impersonal frame in which the most secret responses of the spirit to God can find shelter and support. So, without ever losing though with the homely accidents of our physical existence —and indeed by acts and tokens deliberately drawn from that physical existence— the soul is led into the very recesses of the Godhead, and “by love made visible is snatched up to the Invisible Love.”

Protestant Text, Catholic Use

The Lutherans in the USA had a 'Common Eucharistic Prayer' once upon a time, and it was shaped in Book of Common Prayer language but its content was judged very Catholic by a number of scholars of an earlier period. I have always thought the prayer astonishingly captivating and was even more astonished by the number of Lutheran clergy who never used it! Be that as it may, I would like to illustrate how a Protestant text might find its way into the Catholic Church when Protestants as a group unite with Rome and are allowed to keep elements of their tradition that are consistent with the Catholic truth.

While it is perhaps doubtful today that this Lutheran 'Common Eucharistic Prayer' would ever serve as the Canon of the Mass in a Catholic context, elements of this beautiful prayer certainly can be drawn together to create a prayer of approach for the Priest and Assembly analogous to the Prayer of Humble Access in the Book of Divine Worship -- that miraculous Book of liturgies for Roman Catholics coming from the Anglican tradition. So here is the prayer as I have edited it, and who can say whether or not such a prayer might not have a future in a revised edition of the Book of Divine Worship ... with broader application in mind:

Priest and People
Holy art thou, Almighty and Merciful God.
Holy art thou, and great is the Majesty of thy Glory.
Thou didst so love the world
as to give thine only-begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him might not perish,
but have everlasting life.
Having come into the world
to fulfill for us thy holy will,
he accomplished all things for our salvation.
Remembering therefore his salutary precept,
his life-giving Passion and Death,
his glorious Resurrection and Ascension
and the promise of his coming again,
we give thanks to thee, O Lord God Almighty,
not as we ought, but as we are able;
and we beseech thee mercifully
to accept our praise and thanksgiving,
and with thy Word and Holy Spirit to bless us thy servants,
so that we and all who partake of Christ’s Body and Blood
may be filled with heavenly benediction and grace,
and, receiving the remission of sins,
be sanctified in soul and body,
and have our portion with all thy saints.
And unto thee, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be all honour and glory in thy holy Church,
world without end. Amen.

It may well be argued that this prayer in part repeats what has already been said by the Priest in the Canon. Well, precisely so! Here I might insert some reference to Christifidelis laici but instead let me simply claim the need for repetition of the truths of the Catholic Faith within the Mass itself. Through these internal repetitions and the repeated participation in the Mass, such truths are comprehended and such prayers become not only learnt by heart but also prayers of the heart.

Heart of the Holy Child

from The English Catholic Hymn Book
The S. Matthew Edition, No. 977

........HEART of the Holy Child
........Hide me in thee,
........Purest and undefiled
........Purify me.
........Joy of my earthly life,
........Far from sin and passions rife,
........Troubling this world of strife,
........Keep me with thee.

........Sweet Child of Bethlehem,
........Open thine heart,
........Lessons from Nazareth
........Deign to impart;
........Mary and Joseph dear
........Let us be to Jesus near,
........With you we shall not fear
........From him to part.

........................-Author unknown

Hymn to the Holy Family of Walsingham

for Christmastide to Candlemas - A Hymn inspired by St. Odo

Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston, Texas

Mother of mercy, peace, and love,

Thy Child is God come from above.

As Christ thou lovest we would too

In all we ponder, say or do.

Joseph the Guardian, brave and wise,

Nothing was hidden from thine eyes.

By dreams the Lord God guided thee

May we follow with constancy.

Father of Jesus, God Most High,

Thy love so great brought Our Lord nigh,

Thy Child, thy gift to free a slave,

Gave thee his Life, the world to save.

A child for us, Friend crucified,

Arisen, present by our side,

Victim and Priest, Oh Mystery!

Lord Jesus Christ, we worship thee.

Glory to God, Father of lights

And to the Son, Lord Jesus Christ,

And Holy Ghost the Comforter:

One God in glory for ever.

Text: Copyright © 2005 by Vincent Uher. 
All rights reserved.
Suggested Tunes: Cornish by M. Lee Suitor

A new hymn tune has been written by Noel Jones that is splendid.

This text has also been sung to these tunes:

HursleyDe Tar by Calvin Hampton;
and Keble by J.B. Dykes

+Laus Deo.

Christ my God, my faith discerning

Christ my God, my faith discerning,
Present here through heaven's Bread,
With my heart and mind adoring
By your life my soul is fed.
By your Blood my sins are covered.
By your grace I am renewed.
In your Spirit may I journey
With your light and life imbued.

Magnify, my soul, God's greatness
Even in the day of wrath.
Though great darkness falls on nations
Christ our Light reveals our path.
Let the faithful praise the Body
And the Blood of Christ our Lord --
Holy Wisdom, Word eternal,
Light and Life by all adored.

Calvary's sacrifice and offering
In the Chalice and the Host -
Here is mercy like an ocean
From Our Lord in whom we boast.
With great joy we share his Body
Reverently with hearts raised up.
Pain or blessing, joy or sorrow,
Lovingly we drink his Cup.

We adore the Lord our Brother
In the Sacrament of Life
Cherishing his very Presence
Bringing peace to end all strife.
May we, fed by Christ's own Body,
Serve and see God's kingdom come,
And with all saints praise the Spirit
With the Father and the Son.

Words: Copyright © 1997-2007 by Vincent Uher. All rights reserved.
Suggested tunes: Holy Manna or Hyfrydol
Meter: 87 87 D

Bread of Salvation

Bread of Salvation
heaven sent to earth,
Chalice of our redemption
and new birth!

Covenants sealed
by blood in ages past
broke we betraying God
whom we loved last.

Yet God's own mercy flowed,
and we must tell —
a chosen daughter
met by God's angel.

'Hail, full of grace!
Your child shall be adored.'
'Here I am,' Mary said,
'to serve the Lord.'

Mary our Mother
gave her very blood
to bring to birth
our Saviour and our God.

Jesus Redeemer,
Mary and God's Son,
dying upon the cross
Salvation won.

Flesh from his Mother,
water and the blood
gushed forth to save us all
for Life in God.

New Covenant
he sealed with his own Blood.
"Remember me
and drink my Cup of Love."

Taste and believe
the goodness of the Lord –
His Body, and his Blood
for you outpoured.


Words: Copyright © 1997-2007 by Vincent Uher. All rights reserved.
Music: Song 46
Meter: 10 10

Song 46 is the only tune for this text. The marriage of words and music is a blessed one that none should put asunder. The words were written while in preparation for the Annunciation, March 25th.