Also known as “Sweet Sacrament” this is a text by Frederick William Faber a C19 Anglican convert to Catholicism, set to John de Luca’s arrangement of a “German melody” he calls EUCHARIST but is better known as SWEET SACRAMENT sourced from Romischkatholisches Gesangbuchlein published in 1826.
It is a song for Eucharist, obviously, and I looked at it years ago in a compendium post about songs for Corpus Christi.
The text has had a fair share of “alt” going on and many verses are often omitted.
I made a fake organ backing:
1 Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all,
How can I love Thee as I ought?
And how revere this wondrous gift,
So far surpassing hope or thought?Refrain
Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore;
Oh, make us love thee more and more; Oh, make us love thee more and more.2 Had I but Mary’s sinless heart
To love thee with, my dearest King,
Oh, with what bursts of fervent praise
Thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing!3 Ah, see within a creature’s hand
The vast Creator deigns to be,
Reposing, infant like as though,
On Joseph’s arm, or Mary’s knee.4 Thy body, soul, and Godhead, all;
O mystery of love divine!
I cannot compass all I have,
For all thou hast and art are mine.5 Sound, sound His praises higher still,
And come, ye angels, to our aid;
‘Tis God, ‘Tis God, the very God,
Whose power both us and angels made.
There are extra verses:
Ring joyously, ye solemn bells!
And wave, O wave, ye censers bright!
‘Tis Jesus cometh, Mary’s Son
And God of God, and Light of Light.O earth, grow flowers beneath his feet,
And thou, O sun, shine bright this day.
He comes, he comes, O Heaven on earth,
Our Jesus comes upon His way.He comes, he comes, the Lord of Hosts,
Borne on His throne triumphantly.
We see thee, and we know thee, Lord;
And yearn to shed our blood for Thee.
What a lot of priests and behind them the nuns, with the laity in their place way up the back. I wonder what the occasion was?
Reminding us that this was a new song(!) in 2022:
That second video is at the National Eucharistic Congress that took place a couple years ago here in the US. Several years before that, there was a survey taken about Catholics’ belief in the Eucharist… The results weren’t great. This spurred the bishops to encourage Eucharistic devotions and catechesis under the banner of the “National Eucharistic Revival.” (I would guess this is why OCP added this song to Breaking Bread in 2022.) This “revival” culminated with four long Eucharistic processions from various parts of the country that met in Indianapolis (right in the middle of the US) for the National Eucharistic Congress. Something like 50,000 people came to Indianapolis for the event with huge Masses (like the one in the video) and lots of speakers. Apparently these congresses were quite common for a time here, but they stopped during World War II and never got restarted.
Thanks for the context, Ryan.
We have one in Sydney in 2028 – not sure if I’ll go.
I get that impression that for some of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that unless the laity express an unnuanced, simplistic approach to the real presence it’s the end of the world. Sydney is the most reactionary part of the Australian Catholic Church – Cardinal Pell’s protege is still there after all, so I’ll wait and see for a bit.
Geoff
This reminds me of my days at St.Kevin College. It is nice to hear some of the older hymns again.