Sunday 13 June 2010

Wot no Bowdler?

I've complained recently about the re-writing of hymns to make them more suitable for modern sensibilities (eg taking the Catholic content out of them...)

But today we had 'Lord for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray,' complete and uncensored: including the line 'help me to mortify my flesh....'

How did that slip past the Bowdlerisers?

Incidentally, I was reflecting on my own changed response to this hymn. When I was small, I thought all that 'just for today' stuff was very short-sighted, unambitious and.. well.. wrong. Surely I should want all these things all my life.

Now in middle age, just for today seems absolutely right: the focus I need to maintain on the present moment, trusting the rest to Our Lord....

3 comments:

Ttony said...

Either they're only concerned with mentions of "Man" or "Men" or "He" or "Him" and are too stupid to notice anything else which goes against their version of our Faith, or they don't know what "mortify" means, or they are being hypersensitive towards the Catholic sadomasochistic community.

You and I possibly share a point of view where these people are concerned.

And, yes, just for today is more and more appropriate the older I get too.

Ben Trovato said...

leutgeb: yes, though many a true word...

Ttony: 'hypersensitive towards the Catholic sadomasochistic community' - that gets my vote!

Patricius said...

"In Purgatory's cleansing fires
Brief be my stay:
Oh bid me, if today I die,
Go home today."

This verse appears to have been omitted in the "Laudate" hymn book. I wonder why.