I am working my way through Australia’s Catholic Worship Book, to look for songs that I haven’t covered from other sources.
This one is C7 Latin, Sancti venite, Christi corpus sumite, translated by John Mason Neale in the 1800s.
It is obviously for Eucharist and set here to DECREE. Hymnary lists twenty-four settings for this text – none were DECREE.
CWB II set it to GUSTATE instead, which I blogged here.
Draw nigh and take the body of the Lord;
And drink the holy blood for you outpoured.
Saved by his body and his precious blood,
Our souls refreshed, we offer thanks to God.Our true Redeemer, Christ the only Son,
By cross and blood a mighty victory won.
Offering himself for greatest and for least,
Himself the victim, and Himself the priest.The victims offered by the law of old,
As signs from God, eternal mysteries told.
Now Christ our light, the ransom of our race,
Gives to his own this endless source of grace.Let us approach with loving hearts sincere,
And take the pledge of our salvation here.
Christ, who his faithful servants rules and shields,
To all believers life eternal yields.With bread of life he makes the hungry whole,
Gives living waters to each thirsty soul,
Christ Jesus, first and last, is with us now,
To him at end of time we all shall bow.
