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| A devotional partnership: Bible text and hymn |
I suspect that many readers, after glancing at the above phrase, would cringe and click to another web page. Yet it's thoroughly Biblical—the theme that runs throughout Paul's letter to the Philippian Church. It's also a key phrase in a hymn by a little-known Englishwoman who spent her life helping disadvantaged women and children in London. Its title comes from the opening words: “May the mind of Christ my Savior.”
Born in middle England in 1859, Kate Barclay was raised in the Church of England. After her 1891 marriage at age 32 to Frederick Wilkinson (various resources list him as a cashier, clerk and engineer), she spent the remainder of her life in Kensington (part of London) where she was active in her parish's outreach to girls and young women. She also was part of the “deeper spiritual life” emphasis of the Keswick Convention ministry. Her only-remembered hymn, published in 1925 (three years before her death), was “May the Mind of Christ My Savior.”
The poem's music was composed by A. Cyril Barham-Gould, a priest with the Church of England who served most of his life (1936 until his death in 1953) as a vicar at the historic (and still functioning) St. Paul's Church in Onslow Square, Kensington, London. Appropriately—probably because of Mrs. Wilkinson's passion for helping at-risk women and children near the parish—the tune was titled “St. Leonard's,” for the British town named for 5th century Leonard of Limosin, considered the patron saint of pregnant women and prisoners of war.
When I first ran across her hymn, it touched me deeply. Later I realized how much it was inspired by Philippians, my favorite book of the New Testament, especially Philippians 2:5 (“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,” NIV) and subsequent verses (vv. 6-11) which commentators believe was a hymn sung in the early church.
Overall, her hymn lyrics describe how to pray for the mind and love of Jesus and God's peace for our earthly journey. The pre-eminence of Christ is expressed through phrases like “Him exalting, self-abasing, this is victory.”
I can't put my finger on why I love this hymn so much. Maybe because it draws from truths of my favorite Bible book, Philippians. Or that its thoroughly Biblical message and meditative tune draw me close to God. Or that its classic hymn form reaches deeper into my spirit than many of today's shallow spiritual songs with loud and rocky rhythms. It's my prayer-song for devotional times, for being quiet and listening to God and seeking ways to live in humble obedience.
This You-Tube offers a meditative sing-along:
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