Lord, Who at Thy First Eucharist Did Pray

An old and familiar hymn to me is one composed by William Harry Turton (1856-1938), a British army officer (Royal Engineers) and hymn writer. Used across many parts of the Anglican communion and in recent time in Roman Catholic and other denominations it captures so well the sentiments for unity. That all may be one and that one day we may, all of us, share at the same table. May it be. Amen. Amen. Amen. Here it is:

Lord, who at thy first Eucharist did pray
That all thy Church might be forever one,
Grant us at every Eucharist to say
With longing heart and soul, “Thy will be done.”
O may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.

For all thy Church, O Lord, we intercede;
Make thou our sad divisions soon to cease;
Draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
By drawing all to thee, O Prince of peace;
Thus may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.

We pray thee, too, for wand’rers from thy fold;
O bring them back, good Shepherd of the sheep,
Back to the faith which saints believed of old,
Back to the Church which still that faith doth keep;
Soon may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.

So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease,
May we be one with all thy Church above,
One with thy saints in one unbroken peace,
One with thy saints in one unbounded love;
More blessèd still, in peace and love to be
One with the Trinity in Unity.