First, a word of explanation to anyone else who is reading these in conjunction with joining in Morning Prayer from Eccleshill on YouTube. I went through the book before the start of the year allocating hymns to days and seasons, and it seemed sensible to have the many Communion hymns allocated to Sundays. So after going through the various church seasons from Christmas to Trinity, for the next few months, my blog posts on Sundays will be on hymns in the Sing Praise hymnbook that are set for the Communion / Mass / Eucharist. As there are fewer hymns in the book (330) than days in the year (365) most Saturdays weren’t allocated a hymn What I didn’t know at that stage was that John would join the project by playing these hymns in Morning Prayer, which is set for six days a week excluding Sundays (or rather, Morning Prayer on Sundays has a different liturgy and set of readings). That explains why we end up with communion hymns on Saturdays, and sometimes (as today) I end up posting the ‘Sunday’ blog a day early.
This one is “Before I take the body of my Lord” by John Bell and Graham Maule. It’s about preparation for the Communion, which means taking time to put aside (or in the words of the last line of each verse, ‘lay down’) the things that distract us from prayer: sins we regret having committed, the self-centredness that stops us doing good for other people, failings in relationships. These are described in ore detail in the first three verses.
Verse four is about forgiving others and asking their forgivensss of ourselves. In the Communion service this is the intention of “sharing the peace” although in practice this is often reduced to merely a friendly greeting. Verse five turns to Christ himself, coming with empty heart and open hands, recognising that our laying down of these things is only a poor response to his own laying down of his life for us.
Singing this on Saturday, and perhaps again on Sunday morning, gives time for reflection on how this applies to me personally before receiving the bread and wine in the service itself.