Jesus Christ preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life'; 'The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.' These references to the 'body' appear to have been deliberately introduced into our service. In the Latin form the celebrant had said, 'custodiat animam meam in vitam aeternam.'[1] And as the body has its place of privilege, so also it has a share of the corresponding responsibility. In the Prayer of Oblation 'we offer and present our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice.' Finally, among the Collects suggested to be said after the Offertory, and at other times 'as occasion shall serve,' the foremost place is given to two which are closely connected with the thought of bodily welfare. The first, 'Assist us mercifully, O Lord,' was a prayer used in medieval times for persons who had gone on a pilgrimage to seek physical as well as spiritual blessings; the second is for the sanctification and
- ↑ It would seem that the fuller form, 'corpus et animum meam,' was used by the priest at his own communion in the Mozarabic rite; and that a similar form was prescribed in the Cologne use of the fourteenth century for communicating the people. (Daniel, Codex Liturgicus, i. pp. 105, 147.) Otherwise the rule was as stated above. It is interesting to note, however, that the words 'corpus et' were very generally employed in administering to the sick in medieval England (see the York Manual, Surtees, lxiii. pp. 51, 52).
