We do not presume

 

In the ‘sixth movement’ of the mass, a casual and routine approach to the reception of Holy Communion is something that we should guard against.  The best way to prepare for this sacred moment of the liturgy is to live our lives – as best as we can – according to the values of the Gospel we hear and read regularly.   Then we need to approach the sacrament not with an attitude of entitlement or presumption or indeed despair but an attitude of trust, gratitude, joy, humility and openness.  Holy communion is pure gift.  We receive rather take the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  This is why, if given  the choice and if it were customary to do so, I would rather receive on my knees and on the tongue as is still the case in Eastern Catholic churches.

There is a special prayer said in churches of the Anglican Communion called ‘The Prayer of Humble Access’ said immediately before the preparation of the Table for holy communion.  All the elements of this prayer are present before the reformation but were drawn together by Thomas Cranmer in the English prayer book of 1549.

I use this prayer, privately, just before I receive Holy Communion. It is as follows:

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness but in your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen.  [Book of Common Prayer, Church of Ireland]

A curious postscript to this is the discovery that the above prayer is used by former Anglicans who joined the ‘Personal Ordinariate’ which is in full communion with the bishop of Rome.