Lauda Sion (Sequence)

Sion, lift up thy voice and sing:

Praise thy Savior and thy King,

Praise with hymns thy shepherd true.

All thou canst, do thou endeavour:

Yet thy praise can equal never

Such as merits thy great King.

See today before us laid

the living and life-giving Bread,

theme for praise and joy profound.

The same which at the sacred board

was, by our incarnate Lord,

given to His Apostles round.

Let the praise be loud and high:

sweet and tranquil be the joy

felt today in every breast.

On this festival divine

which records the origin

of the glorious Eucharist.

On this table of the King,

our new Paschal offering

brings to end the olden rite.

Here, for empty shadows fled,

is reality instead,

here, instead of darkness, light.

His own act, at supper seated,

Christ ordained to be repeated

in His memory divine;

wherefore now, with adoration,

we, the host of our salvation,

consecrate from bread and wine.

Hear, what holy Church maintaineth,

that the bread its substance changeth

into Flesh, the wine to Blood.

Doth it pass thy comprehending?

Faith, the law of sight transcending,

leaps to things not understood.

Here beneath these signs are hidden

priceless things, to sense forbidden;

signs, not things, are all we see.

Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine,

yet is Christ in either sign,

all entire, confessed to be.

They, who of Him here partake,

sever not, nor rend, nor break:

but, entire, their Lord receive.

Whether one or thousands eat:

all receive the self-same meat,

nor the less for others leave.

Both the wicked and the good

eat of this celestial Food:

but with ends how opposite!

Here 'tis life: and there 'tis death:

the same, yet issuing to each

in a difference infinite.

Nor a single doubt retain,

when they break the Host in twain,

but that in each part remains

what was in the whole before.

Since the simple sign alone

suffers change in state or form:

the signified remaining one

and the same for evermore.

Behold the Bread of Angels,

for us pilgrims food, and token

of the promise by Christ spoken,

children's meat, to dogs denied.

Shown in Isaac's dedication,

in the manna's preparation,

in the Paschal immolation,

in old types pre-signified.

Jesu, shepherd of the sheep:

Thou thy flock in safety keep,

Living Bread, Thy life supply:

strengthen us, or else we die,

fill us with celestial grace.

Thou, who feedest us below:

Source of all we have or know:

grant that with Thy Saints above,

sitting at the feast of love,

we may see Thee face to face. Amen. Alleluia.