INTROIT
Ps. 80:17.
He fed them with the best of wheat, alleluia; and filled them with honey from the rock, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Ps 80:2
Sing joyfully to God our strength; acclaim the God of Jacob.
Glory Be to the Father…
He fed them with the best of wheat, alleluia; and filled them with honey from the rock, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
COLLECT
O God, You Who in this wondrous sacrament have left us a memorial of Your passion, grant us, we beseech You, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Your Body and Blood that we may ever experience within us the effect of Your redemption.
Who livest…
EPISTLE
Lesson from the first letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians
1 Cor. 23-29.
Brethren: I myself have received from the Lord – what I also delivered to you, – that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks broke, and said, Take and eat. This is My Body which shall be given up for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In like manner also the cup, after He had supped, saying, This is the new covenant in My Blood; do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you shall eat this Bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until He comes. Therefore whoever eats this Bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and the Blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of the cup; for he who eats and drinks unworthily, without distinguishing the Body, eats and drinks judgment to himself.
GRADUAL
Ps. 144:15-16.
The eyes of all look hopefully to You, O Lord; and You give them their food in due season.
℣. You open Your hand; and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Alleluia, alleluia.
John 6:56-57
℣. My Flesh is food indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me and I in him.
SEQUENCE
O Sion, thy Redeemer praising,
Songs of joy to Him upraising,
Laud thy Pastor and thy Guide:
Swell thy notes most high and daring;
For His praise is past declaring,
And thy loftiest powers beside.
‘Tis a theme with praise that gloweth,
For the bread that life bestoweth
Goes this day before us out;
Which, His holy supper taking,
To the brethren twelve His breaking
None hath ever called in doubt.
Full, then, be our praise and sounding,
Modest and with joy abounding
Be our mind’s triumphant state;
For the festal’s prosecution,
When the first blest institution
Of this feast we celebrate.
In the new King’s new libation,
In the new law’s new oblation,
Ends the ancient Paschal rite;
Ancient forms new substance chaseth,
Typic shadows truth displaceth,
Day dispels the gloom of night.
When He did at supper seated,
Christ enjoined to be repeated,
When His love we celebrate:
Thus obeying His dictation,
Blood and wine of our salvation,
We the victim consecrate.
‘Tis for Christian faith asserted,
Bread is into flesh converted,
Into blood the holy wine:
Sight and intellect transcending,
Nature’s laws to marvel bending,
‘Tis confirmed by faith divine.
Under either kind remaining,
Form, not substance, still retaining,
Wondrous things our spirit sees:
Flesh and blood thy palate staining,
Yet still Christ entire remaining,
Under either species.
All untorn for eating given,
Undivided and unriven,
Whole He’s taken and unrent;
Be there one, or crowds surrounding,
He is equally abounding,
Nor, though eaten, ever spent.
Both to good and bad ‘tis broken,
But on each a different token
or of life, or death attends:
Life to good, to bad damnation;
Lo, of one same manducation
How dissimilar the ends.
When the priest the victim breaketh,
See thy faith in no wise shaketh,
Know that every fragment taketh
All that ‘neath the whole there lies:
This in Him no fracture maketh,
‘Tis the figure only breaketh,
Form, or state, no change there taketh
Place in what it signifies.
Bread, that angels eat in heaven,
Now becomes the pilgrim’s leaven,
Bread in truth to children given,
That must ne’er to dogs be thrown.
He, in ancient types disguised,
Was the Isaac sacrificed,
For the feast a lamb devised,
Manna to the Fathers shown.
Bread, whose shepherd-care doth tend us,
Jesu Christ, Thy mercy send us,
Do Thou feed us, Thou defend us,
Lead us where true joys attend us,
In the land where life is given:
Thou all ken and might possessing,
Mercies aye to us largessing,
Make us share Thy cup of blessing,
Heritage and love’s caressing
With the denizens of heaven.
Amen. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Continuation ☩ of the Holy Gospel according to John
John 6:56-59.
At that time, Jesus said to the crowds of the Jews: My Flesh is food indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and as I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. This is the Bread that has come down from heaven; not as your fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this Bread shall live forever.
OFFERTORY
Lev 21:6
The priests of the Lord offer incense and loaves to God, and therefore they shall be sacred to their God and shall not profane His name. Alleluia.
SECRET
Graciously give Your Church, we beseech You, O Lord, the gifts of unity and peace which are betokened by the gifts we offer.
Through our Lord…
PREFACE
Common
It is truly meet and just, and profitable unto salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to Thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, through Christ, our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise Thy Majesty, the Dominions adore it, the Powers are in awe. Which the heavens and the hosts of heaven together with the blessed Seraphim joyfully do magnify. And do Thou command that it be permitted us to join with them in confessing Thee, while we say with lowly praise:
COMMUNION
1 Cor. 11:26-27.
As often as you shall eat this Bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until He comes. Therefore whoever eats this Bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Alleluia.
POSTCOMMUNION
Grant, we beseech You, O Lord, that we may be filled with that everlasting enjoyment of Your Godhead, as foreshadowed here on earth by the partaking of Your precious Body and Blood.
Who livest…