MY SONG ABOUT
THE LAST SUPPER
The first of my original song lyrics I posted after starting this blog focused on a key event of the Easter Triduum: the Last Supper. (I have reposted it in years since.)
The song was bit of conjecture about what one of the apostles (perhaps John?) might have thought looking back from a few years after. I wrote it as an Easter meditation piece, and have performed it many times at Holy Thursday services.
Give the lyrics a read, and have a blessed Easter…
Do This for Me
By Bill Kassel
Take this bread I offer, feast and fill your heart
Remember all the love I showed you from the start
Drink the cup of kindness that peace may finally be
And keep this as a sign for all to see
Do this for me
Now my hour approaches, now I soon must go
Unless a seed should fall, new life can never grow
Keep the words I gave you that truth may set you free
And share them with the least of those you see
Do this for me
It was late and his eyes were weary
And he knew what was coming with the day
But his voice was so clear that through all the years
I still can hear him say:
Take this bread I offer, feast and fill your heart
Remember all the love I showed you from the start
Drink the cup of kindness that peace may finally be
And keep this as a sign for all to see
Do this for me.
Copyright © 1994 Bill Kassel
NOTE: The image above is “The Last Supper” by French painter Valentin de Boulogne (1591 – 1632).
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Here’s a bit of whimsy circulating currently on the Web. I’ve seen several versions of the headline, adapted to the personal experience of whoever’s posting this meme. This version reflects my own…
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Like a lot of hymns and Christian songs, my compositions sometimes include phrases from older tunes (hopefully tunes in the public domain). I like to think of those little snatches as homages. You can think of them as theft.
If you heard me sing “Do This for Me,” you’d recognize bits of the sentimental Irish ditty, “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral.”
Well, as some wag once observed: Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism.
“Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral” was written in 1914 by Irish-American actor and songwriter, James Royce Shannon (1881–1946), who was born in Michigan and served as drama critic for the Detroit Free Press. Shannon also wrote the lyrics to The Missouri Waltz (1916) — music by Frederic Knight Logan — which eventually became the official Missouri State Song.
If you want to hear a classic version of Shannon’s Irish classic, you can’t do better than Der Bingle…
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