Butcher-shop imagery

The letter of October 13 From Clarence Johnson, which mentions the well-known hymn "Soul of my Saviour" stinks of spiritual arrogance.
To use the term "butcher-shop imagery" to describe this well-known hymn — based on the universally known Anima Christi leave me wondering if your correspondent would use the same term to describe the words of Consecration used in every Mass.
He would of course have to leave out the word "imagery" and then one might agree with him; for Calvary was indeed a butchery.
May I testify from my own experience of how much the words of "Soul of my Saviour" can be very consoling? When one is on one's deathbed. Some years ago I was at the death-bed in the hospital of Parkhurst Prison, ministering to one of my men in his last moments. (He died the next day).
Having received Holy Communion he asked me after a long silence, in a very weak halting voice, if I could sing to him a hymn he remembered from his boyhood when he was an altar boy at Benediction. And the hymn he could only dimly remember — after a life of crime and even murder — was "Soul of my Saviour".
So gently and quietly I sang it to him. The touch of his hand upon mine told me how grateful he was. Those words "in death's drear moments, make me only thine" had, at that moment of truth, said everything.
East Finchely London, N2 Fr Robert Goold (retired)
I wouldn't defend my musical taste — which was from Tchaikovsky through Dylan and Baez to "Woodstock" — but I cannot see at all what is ugly about such hymns as "Go Tell Everyone" (Our Lord's own words), "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" (St Francis), "Judas and Mary", "Spirit of God" — they are not only easy to sing (aren't all hymns? isn't that what they're for?) but it seems to me they express profound sentiments.
Some hymns — both ancient and modem, express the particular sentimentalities of their times perhaps, but this is not always bad. I understand why my daughter likes "Little Flower in the Ground", though I don't. I think of Irish immigrants when I sing "Star of the Sea" as I do of Welsh miners when I hear "Cwm Rhondda".
I also love "Faith of my Fathers", "Bring Flowers the Fairest" "Oh Jesus Christ Remember". Hymns may not supply the total needs of worship, of course. Their function is not to relate our feelings to it and express them.
Rita Davis Hastings, Sussex.
So Clarence Johnson (October 13) considers "Soul of my Saviour" to be perfectly dreadful in its butcher-shop imagery. This popular hymn is a reasonably faithful rendenng of the Anima Christi, written by Pope John XXII around the turn of the 13th century. It is a brief meditation on the Eucharist and the Crucified Christ, which surely over the centuries has become one of the great prayers of the Church. There can be few religious communities which do not use it daily.
Does Clarence Johnson equally condemn what in his terms must be the butcher-shop reality of the Eucharist? It is the bloody sacrifice of Calvary which is re-enacted in the Mass; and it was Christ Himself who told us to eat His Ilesh and drink his blood.
Is this part of the ugliness which offends Mr Johnson's taste and refinement? If so, should he not consider whether he has got his Christian sentiments right?
Laurie Tanner Bromley, Kent.
Loyalty
As all our MPs are required to take an oath of loyalty to the Queen I feel that all their constituents participate in that oath. Aften all MPs are our representatives, which means that in their actions they represent us.
I am convinced, therefore, that to take any part in direct elections for a so-called "European Parliament" would be to perjure jmyseff, since such action would be to deprive Her Majesty of some part of her sovereignty. In view of this, I will not he voting in any "European Election" and it is beyond my comprehension how any Christian subject of the Queen can do so.
C. R. YulTle-SmIth Fairmilehead Edinburgh
Night guards
It seems unfortunate that, due to possible thefts, most of our places of worship are unable to remain open at night. Workers on night duty and shift workers might be pleased to call into a church and possibly attend a short service. Many a person in distress would also welcome such sanctuary.
Perhaps a list could be made of the men of a parish who are willing to stand as security guards while the door to God's House is kept open during the night — at least for a few hours.
(Miss) Maureen McDermott Salisbury Rhodesia