This is probably the most well known of John Foley’s songs. It is a good Eucharist song and so will always be in demand. I had to learn to sing it slowly as I tended to race it, although I can’t do it quite a slowly as the original. Nor can I do the chorus at 69bpm and only go up to 72 bpm to indicate excitement (!) and then go back to 69 bpm.
Nonetheless it is a perrenial favourite. The verse sounds a bit like “Nights in White Satin” to me. Foley also gets points for using the Didache as a source for Eucharistic imagery.
This church is racing a bit and you can see how it isn’t tranquil at all. (I’m sure done it even faster myself and made a worse job of it.) This one has the tempo under control and wants you to sing along with what sounds like a great computer backing, but has evened out the intervals in the chorus, which is annoying.
It can be purchased for download from OCP.
My backing imagines us sharing Eucharist around a campfire.
Refrain
One bread, one body,
one Lord of all,
one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many,
throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.Verse 1
Gentile or Jew,
servant or free,
woman or man, no more.Refrain
Verse 2
Many the gifts,
many the works,
one in the Lord of all.Refrain
Verse 3
Grain for the fields,
scattered and grown,
gathered to one, for all.Refrain
© John Foley SJ and New Dawn Music 1978.
PS I’ve found the offending backing which is very fast, very MIDI, very old and very bad.