This one is my personal favorite by far. I love it so much it occasionally brings tears. For all the ink that has been spilt over the Eucharist throughout the centuries, I have never heard or sung a better description of it than this. Humbly I Adore Thee - St. Thomas Aquinas Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen, who thy glory hidest, 'neath these shadows mean; lo, to thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed, tranced as it beholds thee, shrined within the cloud. Taste and touch and vision to discern thee fail; faith, that comes by hearing, pierces through the veil. I believe whate’er the Son of God hath told; what the Truth hath spoken, that for truth I hold. O memorial wondrous of the Lord’s own death; living Bread that givest all they creatures breath, grant my spirit ever by thy life may live, to my taste thy sweetness never failing give. Jesus, whom now hidden, I by faith behold, what my soul doth long for, that thy word foretold; face to face thy splendor, I at last shall see, in the glorious vision, blessed Lord, of thee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAGQRipzAic
Someone once told me this song smacks of transubstantiation, but I've never seen a jot of it. It's high language, sure, and I love it for that, but there's nothing incompatible with our formularies. This is my favorite eucharistic hymn also
This might be a confusion with this also attributed to Thomas Aquinas Tanto Ergo Sacramentum Therefore we, before him bending, this great Sacrament revere; types and shadows have their ending, for the newer rite is here; faith, our outward sense befriending, makes our inward vision clear. Glory let us give, and blessing to the Father and the Son, honor, thanks, and praise addressing, while eternal ages run; ever too his love confessing, who from both with both is One. I also like by Aquinas Godhead Here in Hiding Godhead here in hiding whom I do adore Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more. See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art. Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived; How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed; What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true. On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men; Here thy very manhood steals from human ken: Both are my confession, both are my belief, And I pray the prayer made by the dying thief. I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see, But I plainly call thee Lord and God as he: This faith each day deeper be my holding of, Daily make me harder hope and dearer love. O thou, our reminder of the Crucified, Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died, Lend this life to me, then; feed and feast my mind, There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find. Like what tender tales tell of the Pelican, Bathe me, Jesus Lord, in what thy bosom ran-- Blood that but one drop of has the pow'r to win All the world forgiveness of its world of sin. Jesus whom I look at shrouded here below, I beseech thee, send me what I thirst for so, Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light And be blest forever with thy glory's sight. But for my really truly favorite I pick From the Liturgy of St James Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand. Ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand Christ our God to earth descending comes, our homage to demand. King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth he stood, Lord of heaven now incarnate in the body and the blood, he will give to all the faithful his own self for heav’nly food. Rank on rank the host of heaven streams before him on the way, as the Light of light descending from the realms of endless day comes, that pow’rs of hell may vanish, as the shadows pass away. At his feet the six-winged seraph, cherubim with sleepless eye, veil their faces to the Presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Lord Most High!”