Text and melody are based on a
Leise, a German congregational refrain ending on
Kyrie eleison, of the
Latin sequence Lauda Sion for
Corpus Christi. Luther knew it in a version which first appeared at the end of the 14th century in a processional from the Franciscan monastery
Miltenberg, made in Mainz, at the end of the 14th century: Luther praised the Leise in his writing
Von der Winkelmesse und Pfaffenweihe in 1533, appreciating that it is focused on the sacrament of bread and wine, not on
sacrifice. He made it a song of thanks after
communion, by shortening the text for a first stanza, and by adding two stanzas. The second stanza mentions the
anamnesis of the gifts of redemption, the third stanza is a prayer for spiritual fruits of the sacrament for the individual life of the Christian, and for the community. Luther's version appeared in the
Erfurt Enchiridion of 1524 and in Johann Walter's choral hymnal
Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn the same year. In the current German hymnal
Evangelisches Gesangbuch, it appears as EG 214. == Lyrics ==