I awoke this morning with this in my head, and it’s been an earworm all day:
Accept, Almighty Father
This gift of bread and wine
Which now your priest does offer
To You O GOD benign.In humble reparation
for sins and failings dread
To win life everlasting
for living and for dead.
Actually, what I awoke with was the next part:
Oh, God, by this commingling
of water and of wine
may He who took our nature
Give us His life divine
There is more, after that, but I can’t remember it, and it grieves me to no end that I can’t find anything about it on Google or Bing. This was liturgical hymn of my childhood, and it was one of those great hymns that provided catechesis; it accentuated and defined the vertical and horizontal aspects of the mass, while having the beneficial effect of adding to the sense of reverence, awe to the most solemn part of the mass, when earth and heaven are joined in Christ, and communion and community all support it. And it joined our prayers to the priests in a profound way — who sings prays twice — and that is part of community, too, and dare I say it, unity.
I remember singing this hymn, and loving it, when I was a kid, but I know I have not sung it in perhaps 42 years, certainly not since I moved from Long Island as a child, when I was ten.
Does anyone remember the last bit?
I’m not someone who wants to throw out the whole “Music Issue” in our parishes, but I certainly do wish we could find a way to include some of the wonderful and instructive music that was tossed out — baby with bathwater — in the reforms of the 1970’s, and this is one hymn I’d love to see brought back.
Your thoughts?