The song for today is ‘In manus tuas pater, commendo spiritum meum’, a chant from the Taizé community. Like many of theirs, it’s short and simple. The Latin text translates as ‘Into your hands father, I commend my spirit’.
The saying is one traditionally used in the service of Compline at the end of the day, as we ‘let ourselves go’ into the hands of God. It’s a concept that I, and many others find helpful, whether it’s pictured as God holding our hands, or embracing us, or (as some images interpret it) as being a tiny baby in the large hands of father that are big enough to cradle us. It’s about letting go worries, letting God handle them.
John used the song for Saturday morning prayer as usual, and perhaps this chant can be seen as relating to the Gospel reading where Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about tomorrow (for tomorrow has worries of its own) and trust God to provide their basic needs.
As Stephen says, the text comes in Compline, and I also have found this a helpful service because of it overall atmosphere of commending oneself into God’s hands.
I confess I was uneasy singing it in Latin, and added a couple of verses in English. The Protestant in me rebels against the word of God being “ministered in a tongue not understanded of the people”, and whereas I get the point for Taize where the participants may not share a common live language, for a service of Morning Prayer for a parish church there is little excuse.