CyberHymnal + 1928 BCP + episcopalnet.org Ordo Kalendar + Tracts for our Times Lauda Sion Salvatorem A Summons to the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by St. Thomas Aquinas (c.1264) Laud, O Sion, thy Salvation, Laud with hymns of exaltation Christ, thy King and Shepherd true: Spend thyself, his honour raising, Who surpasseth all thy praising; Never canst thou reach his due. Sing to-day, the mystery shewing Of the living, life-bestowing Bread from heaven before thee set; E'en the same of old provided, Where the Twelve, divinely guided, At the holy Table met. Full and clear ring out thy chanting, Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting To thy heart and soul today; When we gather up the measure Of that Supper and its treasure, Keeping feast in glad array. Lo, the new King's Table gracing, This new Passover of blessing Hath fulfilled the elder rite: Now the new the old effaceth, Truth revealed the shadow chaseth, Day is breaking on the night. What he did at Supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated His memorial ne'er to cease: And, His word for guidance taking, Bread and wine we hallow, making Thus our sacrifice of peace. This the truth to Christians given - Bread becomes His Flesh from heaven, Wine becomes His Holy Blood. Doth it pass thy comprehending? Yet by faith, thy sight transcending, Wondrous things are understood. Yea, beneath these signs are hidden Glorious things to sight forbidden: Look not on the outward sign. Wine is poured and Bread is broken, But in either sacred token Christ is here by power divine. Whoso of this Food partaketh, Rendeth not the Lord nor breaketh: Christ is whole to all that taste. Thousands are, as one, receivers; One as thousands of believers, Takes the Food that cannot waste. Good and evil men are sharing One repast, a doom preparing Varied as the heart of man; Doom of life or death awarded, As their days shall be recorded Which from one beginning ran. When the Sacrament is broken, Doubt not in each severed token, Hallowed by the word once spoken, Resteth all the true content: Nought the precious Gift divideth, Breaking but the sign betideth, He himself the same abideth, Nothing of His fulness spent. Lo! the Angel's Food is given To the pilgrim who hath striven; See the children's Bread from heaven, Which to dogs may not be cast; Truth the ancient types fulfilling; Isaac bound, a victim willing; Paschal lamb, its life-blood spilling; Manna sent in ages past. O true Bread, good Shepherd, tend us, Jesu of thy love befriend us, Thou refresh us, thou defend us, Thine eternal goodness send us In the land of life to see; Thou who all things canst and knowest, Who on earth such Food bestowest, Grant us with thy Saints though lowest, Where the heavenly Feast thou shewest, Fellow-heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia. About the Lauda Sion Salvatorem It was written by Saint Thomas Aquinas for the feast day commonly called Corpus Christi, or the Commemoration of the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which occurs on the thursday after Trinity Sunday each year in the Ordo Kalendar of the Church. To be used as the day's Sequence (recited between the Epistle and Gospel readings), the hymn summons the Church (herein called Sion) to the adoration of the Eucharist. It contains Aquinas' doctrinal exposition of the Sacrament, and closely follows that doctrine as contained in his work, Summa Theologica.