This is a setting of the mediæval prayer, the Anima Christi, written early in Lent 2000 as a simple piece for tenor and cello. The text was already familiar, both in the latin and in David Fleming’s translation, but it was still helpful to revisit it, and to take the prayer, line by line, into my Lenten journey this year.

Musically, the piece is cast as a single movement, which walks gently through the prayer with a texture which is sometimes very spare, and sometimes uses double stopping on the cello to add harmonic richness. The rhythm is free and meditative, wandering between triplets and duplets with frequent changes of time signature, with a constant crotchet pulse throughout.

The text of the Anima Christi has been in constant use as a prayer for over six centuries. As well as being testimony to its enduring value as a prayer, this presents real problems for the translator, because, a faithful translation can easily sound dated to modern ears. This is also a very good reason for setting it, undisturbed in the original latin:

Anima Christi sanctifica me		Being of Christ, make me holy
Corpus Christi salva me.		Body of Christ, save me,
Sanguis Christi inebria me.		Blood of Christ fill [inebriate] me
Aqua lateris Christi lava me		Water flowing from Christ’s side, wash away my sins
Passio Christi conforta me		Passion of Christ, comfort me
O bone Jesu exaudi me		O good Jesus, hear me
In tua vulnera absconde me		In your wounds, hide me
Ne permittas me separari a te.		Do not allow me to be separated from you.
Ab hoste maligno defende me.		From the evil host, defend me.
In hora mortis meæ voca me		In the hour of my death, call me
Et jube me venire ad te.		and bid me come to you
Ut cum sanctis tuis laudem te.		With the saints let me praise you
In sæcula sæculorum.		In the age of ages.
Amen.		Amen.

A more modern translation is David Fleming’s:

Jesus, may all that is you flow into me
May your body and blood be my food and drink.
May your passion and death be my strength and life.
Jesus, with you by my side, enough has been given
May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your cross.
Let me not run from the Love which you offer,
But hold me safe from the forces of evil.
On each of my dyings shed your light and your love.
Keep calling to me until the day comes,
When, with your saints, I may praise you for ever.