Lauda Sion Salvatorem

Laud, O Sion, thy Salvation,
Laud with hymns of exaltation
Christ, thy King and Shepherd true:

Spend thyself, his honour raising,
Who surpasseth all thy praising;
Never canst thou reach his due.

Sing to-day, the mystery shewing
Of the living, life-bestowing
Bread from heaven before thee set;

E'en the same of old provided,
Where the Twelve, divinely guided,
At the holy Table met.

Full and clear ring out thy chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting
To thy heart and soul today;

When we gather up the measure
Of that Supper and its treasure,
Keeping feast in glad array.

Lo, the new King's Table gracing,
This new Passover of blessing
Hath fulfilled the elder rite:

Now the new the old effaceth,
Truth revealed the shadow chaseth,
Day is breaking on the night.

What he did at Supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated
His memorial ne'er to cease:

And, His word for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our sacrifice of peace.

This the truth to Christians given -
Bread becomes His Flesh from heaven,
Wine becomes His Holy Blood.

Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Yet by faith, thy sight transcending,
Wondrous things are understood.

Yea, beneath these signs are hidden
Glorious things to sight forbidden:
Look not on the outward sign.

Wine is poured and Bread is broken,
But in either sacred token
Christ is here by power divine.

Whoso of this Food partaketh,
Rendeth not the Lord nor breaketh:
Christ is whole to all that taste.

Thousands are, as one, receivers;
One as thousands of believers,
Takes the Food that cannot waste.

Good and evil men are sharing
One repast, a doom preparing
Varied as the heart of man;

Doom of life or death awarded,
As their days shall be recorded
Which from one beginning ran.

When the Sacrament is broken,
Doubt not in each severed token,
Hallowed by the word once spoken,
Resteth all the true content:

Nought the precious Gift divideth,
Breaking but the sign betideth,
He himself the same abideth,
Nothing of His fulness spent.

Lo! the Angel's Food is given
To the pilgrim who hath striven;
See the children's Bread from heaven,
Which to dogs may not be cast;

Truth the ancient types fulfilling;
Isaac bound, a victim willing;
Paschal lamb, its life-blood spilling;
Manna sent in ages past.

O true Bread, good Shepherd, tend us,
Jesu of thy love befriend us,
Thou refresh us, thou defend us,
Thine eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see;

Thou who all things canst and knowest,
Who on earth such Food bestowest,
Grant us with thy Saints though lowest,
Where the heavenly Feast thou shewest,
Fellow-heirs and guests to be.

Amen. Alleluia.

Reflection for the day

As Anglican Catholics, we have inherited much from our Fathers. We are still with them in solidarity and do not disconnect ourselves from them in favour of being a la mode, fashionable, or "current". The vehicle of this solidarity is the Eucharist - the Body of Christ. We have received it in common with all members of the Catholic Church, though others would deny that we have. If we doubt that we receive this Body of Christ then we should simply ask ourselves whether we have done all that is necessary to participate with Christ. 

Do we believe in Him to supply what He promised? 
Do we prepare ourselves as a Church to receive what He gives us? 
Do we accept that what we receive unites us as a Church?

We have the Faith of the first Christians and we both keep it tightly bound to our hearts and yet seek to pass it on to all who want to receive it. And the vehicle is the Sacrament which not only we receive but binds us to others because there is only One Body of Christ. If two people receive the Body of Christ, then they are intimately and inextricably bound to each other in Christ. This is a deeper, more penetrating love than any that can exist between human beings, surpassing that love between those who are married.  

This is the love that we have to have for each other. We have to be willing to be bound to each other in Christ. At the moment we cannot receive that, but we can if we allow ourselves to be transformed, if we are willing to repent and seek to be in Christ, not seeking to unite His Immaculate Body with that of the harlot, but seeking to unite a repentant and honest body yearning for repair and completion in the great unification that only Christ can provide. This is not the love in the human breast that believes that Heaven can be built on Earth - that way lies Babel: disunity, discord, death and damnation. This is the love that recognises its own brokenness and seeks conformity in Christ not on the basis of being accepted in the satisfaction of what it is now, but rather on the basis of being accepted and accepting the need for transformation in unity with that Glorious Body.

We Anglican Catholics may not be perceived to be in communion with either Rome nor with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, but we have received the same Faith, and we keep that Faith. And we await our unification in Christ through His true Body Which we receive in every Mass.