With Heart and Voice: Prayers by St. Edmund and Blessed Newman

On Sunday mornings, we like to listen to With Heart and Voice on WXXI:

With Heart and Voice offers a wide spectrum of western sacred music. Exploring the ever-growing treasury of works for life's spiritual side, its seasons and celebrations, With Heart and Voice presents choral and organ music of many faiths, of many cultures, nationalities, and over a thousand years of celebration. Hosted by Peter DuBois, the program celebrates the seasons of the liturgical year and focuses on the richness and beauty of sacred music. With Heart and Voice began as a local Sunday morning program on WXXI-FM Classical 91.5 in 1975, and has been broadcast nationally since 1989.

Yesterday morning, the host included an anthem composed by Jonathan Dove based on prayers by St. Edmund of Abingdon, which was included on a recording from Wells Cathedral:

Into thy hands was commissioned by Salisbury Cathedral to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the canonization of St Edmund of Abingdon (1175–1240), who was Canon Treasurer of Salisbury before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. Dove was asked for an anthem which set words of St Edmund (he actually set two prayers) which would be sung in Pontigny Abbey in France where St Edmund is buried. Of the work Dove has written: ‘Knowing that it was a very resonant building, I imagined that the echo would be part of the piece, and set the first prayer spaciously, allowing for the sound of each phrase to reverberate. The second prayer talks of pilgrimage and eternity, and the music reflects this in a calm processional which does not reach an ending, but simply, in trust, surrenders itself.’

The two prayers:

Into Thy hands, O Lord, and into the hands of Thy holy angels, I commit and entrust this day my soul, my relations, my benefactors, my friends and my enemies, and all Thy people. Keep us, O Lord, through the day, by the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, from all vicious and unruly desires, from all sins and temptations of the devil, and from sudden and unprovided death and the pains of hell. Illuminate my heart with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit; grant that I may ever be obedient to Thy commandments; suffer me not to be separated from Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, mercifully grant to me that the rest of my pilgrimage may be directed according to thy will, that the rest of my life may be completed in thee and my soul may deserve to enjoy thee who art eternal life forever. Amen.

We also heard a setting of Blessed John Henry Newman's great prayer for the evening, which is also included on a recording, this time from the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge:

St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, sustains a fine choir of boys and men, and it was for these forces and their conductor John Scott that Briggs wrote O Lord, support us in 2005. Commissioned by the then Assistant Organist Jeremy Bruns for his wife Kathy, this setting of an exquisite evening collect from the Book of Common Prayer is a tender wash of unashamed loveliness.

It's cited as an anonymous work, but it's Newman's Prayer:

May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last. Amen.