Christian Reflection and Prayer

Partake of Me

Scripture:

I live by the power of the living Father
who sent me; in the same way, those
who partake of me will live because of me.
John 6:57 NLT

Hymn:

Bread of the world, in mercy broken,
wine of the soul, in mercy shed, by
whom the words of life were spoken,
and in whose death our sins are dead;
Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
look on the tears by sinners shed; and
may Thy feast to us be the token that
by Thy grace our souls are fed.
Bread of the World, in Mercy Broken
Reginald Heber (1783-1826)

Reflection:

A Communion hymn

Reginald Heber wrote this hymn
specifically for use in the service
before the Eucharist. Its simple
lines focus first on Christ and then
on the attitude of the singer. Christ
has spoken words of life and has
taken our sins to the cross with Him.
We are sorry for our sins and take
this "feast" of bread and wine as a
"token" of the forgiveness that Christ
offers.

For sixteen years Heber served as a
parish priest in the village of Hodnet
in western England. Three times he
was asked to become the bishop of
Calcutta, India, and twice he turned
it down. Finally at the age of forty,
he accepted the call and sailed for
India with his wife and two daughters.
Three years later, after preaching to
a crowded church near Hindu shrines
to Vishnu and Siva, he suffered a stroke
and died.

While Heber's hymns initially met with
official church resistance, many of them
were eventually published shortly before
his death and have been a blessing to
believers for nearly two centuries.

Our Holy Week readings are adapted
from The One Year® Book of Hymns
by Mark Norton and Robert Brown,
Tyndale House Publishers (1995).
Today's is taken from the entry for April 4.

For more reflection on Holy week, see The
Passion, Tyndale's companion book to Mel
Gibson's powerful movie about the last twelve
hours of Jesus' life.