by Fred Moleck
Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, the domestic church of the United States will gather around tables and express its gratitude when the traditional Catholic blessing before meals is pronounced.“Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
At some of the tables the “thy” will be replaced with “your,” indicating that its members are sensitive to historic evolution regarding archaic language.
The same members will have no problem, however, with archaic language when they pray the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. . . .” You get the idea. We live in interesting times.
At the same tables sometimes a sung prayer is offered when the very Protestant doxology is sung.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise him all creatures here below.
Praise him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.(Sorry. “Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spir’t” doesn’t make it.)
The reason I say “very Protestant” is that at many non–Roman Catholic services, at the completion of the taking up of the monetary offerings by the ushers, there is the venerable practice of presenting the offerings in the alms basins to the presiding clergy in the sanctuary space, and the doxology, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” is sung with full organ and a lot of congregational gusto. The clergy person elevates the basins in solemn gesture.
Catholics don’t have that ritual moment. In fact, most Catholics are not aware of that part of a non-Roman service. We just love to sing the tune and text.
My amusement is the widespread use of the doxology at Catholic family/friend’s tables especially at Thanksgiving.
It’s a powerful expression of ecumenical sharing by the “folks” when one considers that the tune (OLD HUNDREDTH) is from the metrical psalmody of sixteenth-century Calvinist churches. The composer is Louis Bourgeois, ca. 1510–1561.
The text is by a seventeenth-century divine, Bishop Thomas Ken, 1637–1711, who, incidentally, was vehemently anti-Catholic.
Just about every hymnal or service book in use at Roman Catholic liturgies contains the hymn. That sharing in the treasury of non–Roman Catholic hymnody would not have happened fifty years ago.
The capability of singing hymns, psalms, canticles, and antiphons was just in the first stages of universal sung liturgical celebrations.
I’m not suggesting that you impose singing the doxology at your tables on Thursday if you are not already singing it. Singing “Praise God from whom all blessing flow,” however, creates a different atmosphere than a frantic recitation of “”Bless us, O Lord, and these the gifts. . . .”
Sung prayer, shared prayer resources, psalm singing—all good reasons why we should “praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@comcast.net