The verse which Eleanor cites was in actual fact written by John Donne to characterize Elizabeth I's views, as he saw them, and in fact they could be used as much against Catholics as against Calvinists (Donne himself was raised in a Catholic recusant family, but later was ordained in the Church of England, and although his "style" as a preacher and theologian was not at all "puritan," he was basically Reformed in his theological views).
The verse is more "agnostic" about the Eucharistic Presence, than clear, and in this it may be typical of the dominant Anglican outlook.
Only when God the Spirit has wed Christ's sacred body to the bread Through the prayer which we have raised In which the Blessed Trinity is praised, Only then is it as Christ has said.
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Amen and amen.
ReplyDeleteThat poetic image of "wed" could spawn a second stanza in re: receptionism, "What God hath joined together. . . "
+HRC
Sort of reminds me of the poem attributed to Elizabeth I, when asked about her beliefs on the Eucharist (telling the Calvinists to leave her alone):
ReplyDelete"Twas God, the Word, that spake it,
He took the Bread and brake it,
And what the word did make it,
That, I believe and take it."
The verse which Eleanor cites was in actual fact written by John Donne to characterize Elizabeth I's views, as he saw them, and in fact they could be used as much against Catholics as against Calvinists (Donne himself was raised in a Catholic recusant family, but later was ordained in the Church of England, and although his "style" as a preacher and theologian was not at all "puritan," he was basically Reformed in his theological views).
ReplyDeleteThe verse is more "agnostic" about the Eucharistic Presence, than clear, and in this it may be typical of the dominant Anglican outlook.
So how would an Easterner phrase it?
ReplyDeleteOnly when God the Spirit has wed
Christ's sacred body to the bread
Through the prayer which we have raised
In which the Blessed Trinity is praised,
Only then is it as Christ has said.
;)