Sacramental Hymn
By Susa Young Gates
Clean are the hands with which I take
This broken bread and wine.
No stain of earth’s unceasing toil
Pollute these hands of mine.
Yet, are they clean? O, who can tell?
Only the angels know that well.
Pure is the heart with which I plead,
As I these emblems share,
That Jesus will my sins remit
And hear my fervent prayer.
Yet, am I pure? Ah, who can tell?
Only the angels know that well.
(1919)
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Comments are closed.
I like this. When first I read it, I thought it was spoken from the point of view of a priest breaking the bread prior to the prayer. I thought “We will not soon hear the priests sing this as they work at the altar, but it should be in their hearts.”
Reading it as a congregant I can see it as a hymn, and I wish it would be set to a pensive tune and added to the new hymnbook.