The Feast of Corpus Christi

The Feast of Corpus Christi, commemorating the Blessed Sacrament, is observed either on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, or on the following Sunday (generally for convenience).

The feast dates from thirteenth century Belgium, where Juliana of Liege had long believed that such a commemoration should be observed outside Maundy Thursday, during Lent. When she became prioress of the religious community where she lived, she was able to spread her idea more widely through her contact with her (male) confessor, and eventually it was adopted by Pope Urban IV in 1261. It is not part of the Protestant tradition because it was suppressed during the Reformation.

Bread of heav'n, on thee we feed,
for thou art our food indeed.
Ever may our souls be fed
with this true and living bread,
day by day with strength supplied
through the life of Christ who died.

Vine of heav'n, thy love supplies
this blest cup of sacrifice.
'Tis thy wounds our healing give;
to thy cross we look and live.
Thou our life! O let us be
rooted, grafted, built on thee.

Josiah Conder, 1824; alt.
Tune: NUTBOURNE (7.7.7.7.7.7.)
Theodore Aylward, 1869

Said to be the most widely-used of Conder's texts (though we have previously seen others here - click on his tag below), this one first appeared in his collection Star of the East (1824) and later in his Congregational Hymn Book (1836).



Nine (Liturgical) Years Ago: Here, O my God, I see thee face to face

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Sweet Sacrament divine

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: Ave verum corpus - Saint-Saens (video)

Maundy Thursday

When th'apostles with their Friend,
One last supper would attend,
Then his parting word he said,
Blessed the cup and broke the bread,
"This, where'er you do or see,
Evermore remember me."

Years have passed, in every clime,
Changing with the changing time,
Still the sacred table spread,
Flowing cup and broken bread,
With that parting word agree:
"Drink and eat, remember me."

When, in this thanksgiving feast,
We would give to God our best,
Then, O Friend of humankind,
Make us true and firm of mind;
Pure of heart, in spirit free,
Thus may we remember thee.

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, 1878; adapt.
Tune: ARFON (7.7.7.7.7.7.)
Welsh (or French?) melody, 19th cent.?
arr. Hugh Davies, c.1906



NIne (Liturgical) Years Ago: 'Tis midnight, and on Olive's brow

Eight (Liturgical) Years Ago: "Remember me," the Savior said

Seven (Liturgical) Years Ago: Thou, who at thy first Eucharist did pray

Six (Liturgical) Years Ago: Within an upper room they met (now on Facebook)

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Love consecrates the humblest act

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: According to thy gracious word

Adelaide Anne Procter

In her day, the poet Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864) was second in popularity only to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and was a favorite of Queen Victoria. One of her poems, The Lost Chord, became even more well-known after her death when it was set to music as a parlor song by Sir Arthur Sullivan and its sheet music became a Victorian bestseller. 

She reportedly wrote poetry from an early age (her father was also a poet), and her first published poem came out in 1843, in the magazine Heath's Book of Beauty. Ten years later her poems began to appear in Charles Dickens' periodical Household Words. Since Dickens was a family friend, she had used the pseudonym of "Mary Berwick" to avoid any hint of favoritism, and he didn't discover her true identity for nearly two years. Eventually, her poems would make up about one-sixth of the verse that was published in Household Words throughout its lifetime.

In 1851 Adelaide and her sister joined the Roman Catholic Church and her poems start to reflect Catholic themes and theology, with a particular interest in the Virgin Mary. Her third book of poetry, A Chaplet of Verses (1862), was published to benefit the Providence Row Night Refuge for homeless women and children, the first such shelter in England to be sponsored by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. Many of the poems in this book deal with Christian responsibility toward the poor. In the introduction to the book, she recounts the origin of the shelter two years earlier, describes its workings, solicits additional donations to support its work, and prays for its continued success:

May the Mother who wandered homeless through inhospitable Bethlehem, and the Saint who was a beggar and an outcast upon the face of the earth, watch over this Refuge for the poor and desolate, and obtain from the charity of the faithful the aid which it so sorely needs.

She did not, perhaps, intend for her poetry to be sung, but hymnal editors started to include some of her poems in their collections. Today's lesser-known Eucharistic hymn also comes from A Chaplet of Verses.

Give us our daily Bread,
O God, the bread of strength!
For we have come to know
The needs we have at length.
We need your Presence here,
Your people must be fed;
Give us your grace, O God,
To be our daily Bread.

Give us our daily Bread
To cheer our fainting soul;
The feast of comfort, God,
And peace, to make us whole:
For we are sick of tears,
The useless tears we shed;
Now give us comfort, God,
To be our daily Bread.

Give us our daily Bread,
The bread of angels, Lord,
By us, so many times,
Broken, betrayed, adored:
From grace and comfort comes
The feast that Jesus spread:
Give him — our life, our all —
To be our daily Bread!

Adelaide Ann Procter, 1862; alt.
Tune: DENBY (6.6.6.6.D.)
Charles J. Dale, 1904

Procter considered her philanthropic deeds to be much more important than her poetic words. The "useless tears we shed" in the second stanza above may reflect her own preference for action over contemplation or regret. A long and interesting poem in A Chaplet of Verses titled The Homeless Poor lays out the conflict between words and deeds in a dialogue between two angels talking about how best to meet the needs of the destitute. That one is called the Angel of Prayers and the other the Angel of Deeds may give you a clue to the final determination.

She fully demonstrated her own commitment to deeds over words, contracting tuberculosis during her work with the poor of London.  She suffered with the disease for fifteen months before her death on February 2, 1864 (coincidentally, the Feast of the Purification, which she called Mary's "first feast" of the year in her poem Christmas Flowers).



Eight Years Ago: Christopher Wordsworth 

Seven Years Ago: Adelaide Anne Procter 

Six Years Ago: Adelaide Anne Procter

Two Years Ago: Christopher Wordsworth

The Feast of Corpus Christi

The Feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated on this day in some churches, transferred from its true position on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. It is a day set aside to pay tribute to the Real Presence of Christ, the Body and Blood in the Communion meal.

Saint Juliana of Liege (1193-1258) was the first champion of such a feast day; she wanted a commemoration for the Eucharist that would fall outside the season of Lent and outside Holy Week. She convinced her local bishop, Robert de Thorete, of the usefulness of such an occasion and he declared the first celebration of the feast in 1246.  From there it eventually spread to the whole Catholic Church, decreed by Pope Urban in 1264. Other churches, particularly some Anglo-Catholic churches in the Anglican Communion also mark the day. Historically, it was often a very elaborate celebration, with an outdoor procession conveying the elements of the Eucharist.

The well-known Latin text Ave verum corpus dates from the fourteenth century and is attributed to Pope Innocent IV, written for this feast day. It has been set to music by many composers, perhaps most notably by Mozart and William Byrd.

This is a setting I particularly like, by Camille Saint-Saens, sung by the Handel Choir of Baltimore, Maryland.




P.S. - The art above is by the fifteenth-century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, depicting a Corpus Christi procession in Venice's St. Mark's Square.



Seven Years Ago: Here, O my God, I see thee face to face

Three Years Ago: Sweet Sacrament divine 

Phebe Hanaford

Universalist minister, activist, author and poet Phebe Hanaford was born on May 6, 1829 in Massachusetts.  I have already covered several aspects of her biography in previous entries (linked below), but she led a long and active life.

Her early concern with social justice issues led her to write an anti-slavery novel, Lucretia the Quakeress in 1853, the same year that Harriet Beecher Stowe's more well-known Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared.   After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln she wrote a popular biography of the president.  Her most popular book, however, was Daughters of America (1883), an encyclopedia of renowned and accomplished women from colonial times to her day.

Today's communion hymn by Hanaford is taken from a poem in one of her collectiions, From Shore to Shore (1871).

The feast of life is sweet;
I am a willing guest,
And joyful, at my Savior's feet
I heed his high behest.

I eat the living Bread,
I drink the Cup divine;
And love within my heart is shed
And light shall 'round me shine.

With what exultant joy
My Savior, I shall sing!
Thy praise shall be my soul's employ
Till heav'n's high arch shall ring,

My soul feeds on thy Word
And strength receives from thee
I weary not of thee, O Lord,
O weary not of me!

Still at the feast of life
For strength let me sit down
Till victor, through thee, in the strife
I wear the glorious crown.

Phebe Hanaford, 19th cent.; adapt.
Tune: FESTAL SONG (S.M.)
William H. Walter, 1872

The tune FESTAL SONG is most often associated with the hymn Rise up, O men of God, by William Pierson Merrill, but that's not a text I would ever be writing about.  Contemporary hymn writer Ruth Duck has written a modern text for this tune as a sort of replacement: Arise, your light is come!, which appears in some newer hymnals.  I think you should seek it out if possible; it's quite good (and more grounded in scripture than Merrill's).

The picture below depicts Phebe Hanaford in the pulpit of the New Haven Universalist Church which she pastored in the 1870s.  Since I first wrote about her a few years ago, a biography of her (the first!) has been published, A Mighty Social Force.  One of the contributors, Sarah Barber-Braun, is a long-time scholar of Hanaford and her work, and successfully campaigned for a headstone to finally be placed at Hanaford's unmarked gravesite in 1998.

Three Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Two Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Cecil Frances Alexander

Irish hymnwriter Cecil Frances Alexander died on this day in 1895 (the date of her birth in 1823 is not recorded). Her first published writing was in a series of religious tracts she produced with her friend Lady Harriet Howard. They were both influenced by the Oxford Movement (also sometimes called the Tractarian Movement because its precepts were laid out in a series called Tracts for the Times, published from 1833 to 1841). Harriet and Fanny (as she was known) decided to put out their own tracts in 1842. Harriet supplied the prose and Fanny the poetry, intended to reflect and expand upon Harriet's themes. The tracts attracted much interest and were collected into a book in 1848.

By that time she had already published two collections of poetry: Verses for Holy Seasons (1846) and Hymns for Little Children, and texts from these collections began appearing in hymnals. Several more collections followed, and hymnal editors often contacted her for a new text or two for their books. By the time of her death her hymns were known and loved throughout the world, and many survive into our time.

Here are the blog we have already seen all of her most familiar hymns (click on the tag below), so I found something a bit more obscure for today.

From many a close and crowded place,
From many a lowly room,
Out of the strife of common life,
Out of its toil and gloom,

We come, for strength to keep our hope,
To feed the life we live;
The feast is spread, the cup and bread,
And Christ is there to give.

Each time we seek thy table blest,
Again, again, 'tis dear --
Joy thus to be rememb'ring thee.
And joy to know thee near.

Be with us at thy sweet love-feast,
Still feed us with thy grace,
Till faith's strong might be lost in sight,
And we behold thy face.

Cecil Frances Alexander, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: CAITHNESS (C.M.)
Scottish Psalter, 1625

Following her death, her husband William Alexander, the Archbishop of All Ireland, published a larger collection of her hymns and poems. Though he included some biographical information in the preface, he did not reveal her birthdate either. Most of the preface tells about Mrs. Alexander's many works of charity and somewhat less about her writing. In a brief personal recollection, writing of their marriage in 1850, he says: it is not the exaggeration of affection which says that she was a singularly attractive person. Perhaps not the most effusive tribute, but he was, after all, an archbishop.

Two Years Ago: Cecil Frances Alexander

Two Years Ago: Healey Willan

Two Years Ago: Ralph Vaughan Williams

One Year Ago: Ralph Vaughan Williams

Calvin Weiss Laufer

Presbyterian minister and hymnographer Calvin Weiss Laufer was born today in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania in 1874. Following his graduation from Union Seminary in 1900 he was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry and led congregations in New York and New Jersey for several years.

Laufer had a generally cheerful outlook on his Christian life, and his first two books, Key-Notes of Optimism (1911) and The Incomparable Christ (1914) expressed that viewpoint. A review of the first book spoke of the "crisp and stirring note in these sermonettes which is well calculated to rouse the mind of readers and banish dejection." His books were popular in their time but today are seen as somewhat superficial.

He later began to work with the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education and became its editor of musical publications, producing books such as The Junior Church School Hymnal (1927), The Church School Hymnal for Youth (1928) and When the Little Child Wants to Sing (1935). He was also the associate editor of the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1933, a very popular book which was used in many churches for more than fifty years.

In 1932, his book Hymn Lore was published, which contained the stories of fifty hymns from The Church School Hymnal for Youth, with information about their writers and composers (much like this blog). He chose a broad range of hymns, some quite modern and others well-known and loved for centuries. Several of them were by his mentor and friend Louis F. Benson, who had edited the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1895 and its 1911 revision (and also wrote The Best Church Hymns). In the preface to Hymn Lore, Laufer wrote:

To live with hymns and to make them one's own is the only sure way of appreciating their literary beauty and spiritual power. (...) That the reading and singing of hymns may become less mechanical, more thoughtful and intelligent, and emotionally more effective, this volume is released to the public.

Laufer wrote both hymn texts and tunes himself, most of which first appeared in the books he edited but also had some life outside Presbyterian circles. This tune was written while Laufer was attending a conference in Kansas, though with no particular text in mind. Not long after, he hummed it to a friend, William H. Foulkes, who then wrote the text Take thou our minds, dear Lord. The tune suits this communion text as well, I think.

Here at thy table, Christ, this sacred hour,
O let us feel thee near, in loving power,
Calling our thoughts away from grief and sin
As to thy banquet hall we enter in.

Sit at the feast, dear Friend, break thou the bread;
Fill thou the cup that our souls shall be fed;
That we may find in thee pardon and peace,
And from all bondage win a full release.

So shall our life of faith be full, be sweet;
And we shall find our strength for each day meet;
Fed by thy living bread, all hunger past,
We shall be satisfied, and saved at last.

Come then, O holy Christ, feed us, we pray;
Touch with thy piercèd hand each common day;
Making this earthly life full of thy grace,
Till in the home of heaven we find our place.

May Pierpont Hoyt,19th cent.;alt.
Tune: HALL (10.10.10.10.)
Calvin W. Laufer, 1918

Laufer's tune was originally called STONY BROOK, but he changed it to honor a friend, William Ralph Hall. Little is known about the writer May Pierpont Hoyt. Her text is generally sung to the tune BREAD OF LIFE by William F. Sherwin, but since that tune is more known with Break thou the Bread of life, this text could use a different one.

Two Years Ago: Calvin Weiss Laufer

Maundy Thursday

Thou, who at thy first Eucharist didst pray
That all thy Church might be forever one,
Grant us at ev’ry Eucharist to say
With longing heart and soul, “Thy will be done.”
O may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest sacrament of unity.

For all thy people, Christ, we intercede;
Make thou our sad divisions soon to cease;
Draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
By drawing all to thee, O Prince of Peace;
Thus may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest sacrament of unity.

And so, at length when sacraments shall cease,
May we be one with all thy Church above,
One with thy saints in one unbroken peace,
One with thy saints in one unbounded love;
More blessèd still, in peace and love to be
One with the Trinity in Unity.

William H. Turton, 1881; alt.
Tune: SONG 1 (10.10.10.10.10.10.)
Orlando Gibbons, 1633


One Year Ago: Maundy Thursday

Two Years Ago: Maundy Thursday

More Voices Found: Ada Cambridge

Ada Cambridge was born today in 1844 in the eastern English town of Norfolk. Her education was taken in hand by a succession of governesses, which she apparently did not like, and by one maiden aunt, whom she later credited with much of her intellectual development.

In 1870 she married the Reverend Mr. George Frederick Cross, and only a few weeks later they moved to Australia, where he was to lead several missionary parishes of the Church of England over the next forty-three years. A few years, later, to supplement his small income and support their growing family, Ada began to write novels, many of them first serialized in magazines. Her reputation grew and her works became popular in England and the US as well as in Australia. She eventually published twenty-five novels, a few books of poetry, and two memoirs, including Thirty Years in Australia (1903). Her novels and other books were published under the name of Ada Cambridge (or, earlier, A.C.) rather than under her married name.

Her views were modern and somewhat unorthodox, especially as expressed in her poems. One of her poetry collections, Unspoken Thoughts (1887) was withdrawn from sale at her request only three days after its publication. Apparently, some of the poems were challenging to the religious and sexual attitudes of the day, and would not have been considered proper from the wife of an Anglican clergyman.

However, her first literary attempts were published a few years before her marriage and emigration. She had written verse as a girl, but her first two books were of hymns:

Hymns on the Litany (1865)
Hymns on the Holy Communion (1866)

The second of these books contained this hymn, which I believe was not taken up by very many hymnals, though I find it interesting. The exclamation points in the first two stanzas give an ecstatic feeling to the communion theme.

Food of heaven! Feast of angels!
On this holy altar spread;
Symbol of the life immortal,
In our sight unfathomèd.

Love celestial! Hope undying!
Here unto our faith revealed;
Light, whose mystery we know not,
Truth, which lips divine have sealed.

Gate of the Eternal City,
Where the angel-echoes ring,
Where our Mediator standeth
With a smile of welcoming.

Jesus stands in light and glory,
Patiently disburdening:
Strength divine, and peace and blessing
On the captive soul to bring.

And the promise stands forever
That each faithful one shall be
Guarded by this grace and power,
By this love, eternally.

Once the gift was freely offered
Now may we its blessing take
Drink the chalice of salvation,
Eat the bread that Jesus brake.

Ada Cambridge, 1866; alt.
Tune: MERTON (8.7.8.7.)
William H. Monk, 1850

The Crosses returned to England in 1912 upon his retirement. Though their early years in Australia had been difficult, Ada returned there after George's death in 1917 and remained until her death in 1926.

Now One Bread United

My countdown here is finished today with the final revelation -- my favorite hymn. I'm a bit sad that, due to the peculiarity of US copyright law**, I don't think I should reproduce it here. But here's a link to the original.

As the disciples, when thy Son had left them

Percy Dearmer, 1931
Tune: DIVA SERVATRIX (11.11.11.5.)
Bayeux Antiphoner, 1739

I've thought it was practically perfect since the first time I sang it many years ago, as it links the earliest followers of Jesus with us in the present day in a truly beautiful succession of poetic images. Unfortunately it is not widely known, especially in this country. My preferred tune (AD TUUM NOMEN, another French church melody) is also unavailable, the arrangement, if not the melody, also under copyright -- it appeared in the Reformed hymnal Rejoice in the Lord (1985).

Percy Dearmer was an Anglican priest (later Canon of Westminster Abbey) who worked with Ralph Vaughan Williams on both Songs of Praise (1931) and the earlier English Hymnal (1906). He translated hymns from Latin and also wrote several hymns of his own, in addition to writing several other books on religious and social justice topics.

I think that this hymn is probably considered insufficiently doctrinal (no "body and blood," for example) for some denominations. The sacrament of Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, or whatever it may be called, is more than a "commemoration" to many. Also, it may be that the word "rehearsing" at the end of the first verse is problematic for some. Rehearsal implies "not ready for prime time" -- we don't "rehearse" the sacraments - we perform them! I don't think that's what Dearmer had in mind -- the first definition in some dictionaries is simply "to repeat." That's what the disciples did then and what we still do today. There may be another sense to it though; there are other communion hymns that talk about our rite being only a pale reflection of the heavenly Feast we will one day share (the "foretaste of the festal joy"). In this sense too, we are only "rehearsing" for that day.
At any rate, I am fairly sure that this hymn will not appear on the top 100 list at Semicolon. Of the rest of my own list below. we know that Number Three came in at Number Ninety-Nine, and Number Six came in at Number Eighty-Three. I also don't think that Numbers Four, Five, and Ten will appear at all, while Number Eight has a pretty remote chance. Numbers Two, Seven, and Nine should come up somewhere in the remaining sixty-seven, but I'll have to wait and see. This is not a great batting average (as if I knew anything about those!).

10. Jerusalem the golden

9. Abide with me, fast falls the eventide

8. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart

7. Crown thee with many crowns

6. O worship our God

5. The spacious firmament on high

4. Who are these like stars appearing

3. Glorious things of thee are spoken

2. Love divine, all loves excelling

1. As the disciples. when thy Son had left them

**It's by a British hymnwriter and editor, first appeared in a UK hymnal (Songs of Praise - 1931), and appears to be out of copyright in the UK (75 years after the author's death), but since the hymnal's publisher simultaneously published in the US, it seems that it won't be in the US public domain until 2026.

Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge, the Nonconformist preacher and professor who trained at least two hundred men in ministry at his own academy, was born today in 1702. He admired the hymns of Isaac Watts, whom he later met and befriended. Later in life, having written many hymns of his own, Doddridge wrote that he was but one of the many lamps "kindled at Watts' torch."

I think the most interesting thing about Doddridge is that he wrote his hymns to be sung immediately following his sermons; he apparently wrote them at the same time, using the same scripture verses as the theme. How many modern ministers would find it a useful discipline to write both a sermon and a hymn illustrating that sermon each week?

My God, thy table now is spread,
Thy cup with love doth overflow;
Be all thy children thither led,
And let them thy sweet mercies know.

O, let thy table honored be,
And furnished well with joyful guests;
And may each soul salvation see
That here its sacred pledges tastes.

Drawn by thy quick'ning grace, O Lord,
In countless numbers let them come;
And gather from their Savior's board
The Bread that lives beyond the tomb.

Nor let thy spreading Gospel rest
Till through the world thy truth has run;
Till with this Bread all those be blest
Who see the light, or feel the sun.

Philip Doddridge, 1755; alt.
Tune: ROCKINGHAM (L.M.)
arr. Edward Muller, 1790

This hymn has undergone many changes over the years; though it still reads a bit old-fashioned to us, it has in fact been "modernized" from Doddridge's original, which began:

My God, and is thy table spread?
And does thy cup with love o'erflow?

Somewhere along the way an editor decided to make the opening lines declarative rather than questioning (though Doddridge was certainly not questioning - he knew the answer was "yes").

The tune ROCKINGHAM, familiar and used in many hymnals, appeared in Edward Muller's Psalms of David (1790). He adapted the tune from an earlier one called TUNBRIDGE, which appeared in another psalter tune book about ten years earlier. The relationship between the tunes was apparently revealed in 1909 in The Musical Times, which reproduced the page from Miller's copy of the earlier book containing TUNBRIDGE, with his notation "would make a good long m.[eter tune]."

P.S. The illustration above is the frontispiece of a book by Doddridge, described as "the Author, supported by Faith and Piety, accompanied by Benevolence."

One Year Ago: Philip Doddridge

Reginald Heber

English bishop and hymnwriter Reginald Heber (April 21, 1783 - April 3, 1826), was born in Cheshire, where his father was a clergyman. His academic career at Oxford University was very distinguished, and he was himself ordained in the Anglican church a few years later.

He then spent sixteen years as rector of Hodnet, a village in Shropshire, and it was during this period that he wrote nearly all of his hymns, some of which were published in church periodicals. Hymns were not yet a regular part of Anglican worship, but Heber knew how popular they were among Methodists and other Dissenting congregations.

He began to assemble a collection of new hymns, written both by himself and by friends of his, such as Henry Hart Milman. Two Church of England bishops were approached for permission to publish a hymnal with suggested hymns for each Sunday of the church year. Heber wrote of the "powerful engine" that hymn singing was becoming in other denominations, and that it might be better to regulate, through ecclesiastical approval, the content of hymns rather than to try to suppress them altogether. Approval was denied.

In 1823 Heber was appointed Bishop of Calcutta. He had turned down the appointment twice before but finally consented. He traveled extensively throughout his domain (which at the time included all of India, Ceylon, and Australia) and was acclaimed for his hard work. However, he died suddenly in India in 1826, following a service where he confirmed forty-two people.

After his death, his wife Amelia finally received the necessary permission to publish the hymnal he had worked on years before. Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827) contained all fifty-seven of Heber's hymns, including this one, which is still sung today.

Bread of the world, in mercy broken,
Wine of the soul, in mercy shed,
By whom the words of life were spoken,
And in whose death our sins are dead.

Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
Look on the tears by sinners shed;
And be thy feast to us the token,
That by thy grace our souls are fed.

Reginald Heber, 1827
Tune: EUCHARISTIC HYMN (9.8.9.8.)
John S. B. Hodges, 1868

John Sebastian Bach Hodges (yes, his father was a composer) was born in England but lived in the US for many years. He attended Columbia University and the General Theological Seminary, and was ordained in the Episcopal Church, serving congregations for many years. Given that name he was perhaps destined to have at least some musical interests, and he did write some hymn tunes and helped compile more than one hymnal.

P.S. The kneeling statue of Reginald Heber by sculptor Francis Chantrey is in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Chantrey also erected a statue of Heber in Calcutta.

One Year Ago: Saint Anselm

Maundy Thursday

Today's hymn recalls the Last Supper, on the night we now observe as Maundy Thursday. It appeared in several nineteenth-century hymnals, but is less known today.

"Remember me," the Savior said

On that forsaken night,

When from his side the nearest fled,

And death was close in sight.

Through all the following ages' track

The world remembers yet;

With love and worship gazes back,

And never can forget.

But who of us has seen his face,

Or heard the words he said?

And none can now his look retrace

In breaking of the bread.

We hear the Word along our way;

We see the Light above;

Remember when we strive and pray,

Remember when we love.

Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, 1855; alt.

Tune: DUNDEE (C.M.)

Scottish Psalter, 1615

Nathaniel Frothingham (1793 - 1870) was a Unitarian minister, ordained in 1815 when he assumed the pulpit at the First Congregational Church of Boston, where he remained for the next thirty-five years.

DUNDEE is another familiar tune, one of twelve common meter tunes in the Scottish Psalter published by Andro Hart in 1615 (where it was called FRENCH TUNE). It was first used with several psalm paraphrases and over the years many other texts have been sung to it (including some we would think of as mismatches today, such as O God, our help in ages past).

One Year Ago: Maundy Thursday

Joined With All the Glad and Good

O thou whose gracious presence shone,
A light to bless all humankind,
To thee we fondly turn again
As to a friend that we have known.

Thy grace and truth, thy life that shed
Undying radiance through all time,
Thy tender love, thy faith steadfast,
Remembering these, we break the bread.

And lo! again we seem to hear
Thy blessing on the loaf and cup,
The presence that was given then
Again to loving hearts brought near.

Our humble lives, thus touching thine,
Are joined with all the glad and good,
In truer, nobler unity
That lifts the world to realms divine.

Marion Franklin Ham, 1912; alt.
Tune: BROMLEY (L.M.)
Jeremiah Clarke, 1700

Marion Franklin Ham (1867 - 1956) was a Unitarian minister who served churches from Texas to Massachusetts. He shares a February 18 birthday with a more prominent hymnwriter, Martin Luther.

It may seem unusual for a communion hymn to come from a Unitarian origin, but most Unitarian and Universalist hymnals of the past did contain a section of such hymns. Even today the rite is still practiced in some UU churches, though it's controversial in many others.

Mary Artemesia Lathbury

Mary Artemesia Lathbury (born August 10, 1841) was a teacher, artist, and editor as well as a writer (and not only of hymns). She taught art at a number of schools in the northeastern US, and was then hired as associate editor for the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School publications. She wrote and illustrated many poems and other pieces for those books and magazines, including the Child's Life of Christ.

She attended the annual sessions of the Chautauqua Institution for many years, and wrote her two most famous hymns while there: the evening hymn Day is dying in the west, and this one, probably the most widely used, still today.

Break now the Bread of life,
Dear Friend, to me,
As once you broke the loaves
Beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page
Your voice is heard;
My spirit longs for you,
O living Word!

Bless here the truth, dear Christ,
To me, to me,
As once you blessed the bread
By Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease,
All fetters fall;
And I shall find my peace,
My all in all.

Mary A. Lathbury, 1877, alt.
Tune: BREAD OF LIFE (6.4.6.4.D.)
William F. Sherwin, 1877

Lathbury wrote only two verses. In 1913 Alexander Groves added two more verses; many hymnals publish all four, some only the original two. I chose to leave the additions out for a few reasons.

A well-written hymn will have a recognizable final verse, one that comes to a climax or conclusion. Lathbury's does - we, with Christ's blessing, find our "all in all." But Groves' verses continue on, with his own final verse, meaning that there's now an extra one. Also, Lathbury specifically writes "Beyond the sacred page," indicating perhaps that there's more to faith than scripture alone. But Groves brings the Bible back into it in two lines -- "(Thy) holy Word the truth that saveth me" and his final line, "And in (thy) Book revealed, I see the Lord." Did he overlook her meaning, or did he decide to "correct" her? Either way, I no longer see any need for his extra verses. Voices Found includes a new third verse (using a vague shadow of Groves' last verse), but gives no indication of its author. Maybe two verses are enough.

Mary Lathbury wrote several more hymns, more than are listed at her Cyber Hymnal page. In Songs From the Hearts of Women, a 1903 book about women hymn writers, it's written of Lathbury "her chance of having a name two hundred years hence is better than that of most writers in America." This hymn has already lasted 131 years, so 200 doesn't seem unlikely.

Fresh Supplies of Love

O Source of life divine,
Who hast a table spread,
Supplied with mystic wine
And everlasting bread,
Preserve the life thyself hast giv'n,
And feed and train us up for heav'n,
And feed and train us up for heav'n.

Our thirsting souls sustain
With fresh supplies of love,
Till all thy life we gain,
And all thy fullness prove,
And, strengthened by thy perfect grace,
Behold without a veil thy face,
Behold without a veil thy face.

Charles Wesley, 1745; alt.
Tune: RHOSYMEDRE (6.6.6.6.8.8.8.)
John David Edwards, 1840

Charles Wesley occasionally wrote short hymns, too. They weren't all fourteen verses long, like Come, O thou Traveller unknown, or eighteen verses, like O for a thousand tongues to sing. This one really was only two verses long, first published in 1745 in his collection titled Hymns on the Lord's Supper. The minor changes made (mostly before we got to it) were to help it fit this particular tune better.

RHOSYMEDRE was one of three Welsh hymn tunes that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged into organ preludes in 1920 (the other two were HYFRYDOL and BRYN CALFARIA). You can find performances of them on YouTube though I can't vouch for them - using dial-up right now.

P.S. The illustration above is a communion table from Elizabethan times, from Sunningwell Church in Bristol.

One Fold, One Faith, One Hope, One Joy

In memory of the Savior’s love

We keep the sacred feast,

Where every humble, contrite heart

Is made a welcome guest.

One fold, one faith, one hope, one joy,

One God alone we know;

As kindred all, let every heart

With kind affection glow.

In faith we take the bread of life,

Christ's presence is made known;

The cup in token of a love

For all God's people shown.

In faith and memory thus we sing
The wonders of that love,

And so anticipate by faith

The heav’nly feast above.

Thomas Cotterill, c. 1805; Isaac Watts v.2; adapt.

Tune: LAND OF REST (C.M.)

Traditional American melody

Another communion hymn, one we chose for our planned hymnal. I don't remember where we found it, but someone had gotten to it before us and made some changes from the original as well as adding the second verse, and calling it "anonymous." Years later, a Google search reveals that the verse is by Isaac Watts, taken from a different hymn (one not listed at the Cyber Hymnal), but the meter was changed with the addition of a few words. The Internet would have made a huge difference if we had had it back then.

The American folk tune LAND OF REST has also been used to set some parts of the communion liturgy, as well as for another modern hymn for the Eucharist, hymnwriter Brian Wren's I come with joy to meet my Lord. I think there's room for two hymns with the same theme and the same tune.

The Feast of Corpus Christi

Today is sixty days after Easter, the feast day of Corpus Christi, in honor of the Eucharist. It was formally established by Pope Urban in 1264, after being first urged by the Augustinian nun Juliana of Liège. Though primarily celebrated in the Roman Catholic church, there are observances in Anglican and Episcopal churches; some today and some on Sunday. Many will probably further celebrate the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

I have many favored hymns for the Eucharist, or (Holy) Communion, as many know it. There's a wide range of them from the extremely vivid verses about the body and blood of Jesus Christ to the commemorative ones about shared experience and fellowship. I think there's a place for all of them, though I know many people would require a stricter doctrine in one way or another.

Here, O my God, I see thee face to face;
Here would I touch and handle things unseen;
Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,
And all my weariness upon thee lean.

Here would I feed upon the Bread of God,
Here drink with thee the royal Wine of heaven;
Here would I lay aside each earthly load,
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.

This is the hour of banquet and of song;
This is the heavenly table spread for me;
Here let me feast, and feasting, still prolong
The brief, bright hour of fellowship with thee.

Too soon we rise, we go our several ways;
The feast, though not the love, is past and gone,
The bread and cup consumed, yet all our days
Thou art still here with us -- our Shield and Sun.

Feast after feast thus comes and passes by;
Yet, passing, points to the glad feast above,
Giving us foretaste of the festal joy,
The Lamb's eternal feast of bliss and love.

Horatius Bonar, 1855; alt.
Tune: MORECAMBE (10.10.10.10.)
Frederick C. Atkinson, 1870

There are three more verses but they drift away from the Communion theme a bit. In the Hymnal 1940 the Episcopalians actually split the verses up and made two different hymns out of it, giving each one an odd "modern" tune. They tried again with some different/additional (but similarly odd) tunes for the two separate hymns in the Hymnal 1982.

Free advice: Give it up. Frederick Atkinson's tune will never die no matter how unsophisticated you think it to be. While you're at it, put the text back together like it is here. Everyone in the pews will be content, if not the organists and theologians who need to tinker.