Prayers

A Prayer of Humble Access

This short prayer appeared in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549, as a preparation for holy communion.

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Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev prepares the communion bread
By Stolichnyj blagovest. Public domain.

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A Prayer of Humble Access

By Stolichnyj blagovest. Public domain. Source

Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev prepares the communion bread

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A close-up shot of Onuphry, Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Kiev, preparing the communion bread at a service in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (a kind of monastery) on July 23rd, 2019. One of the changes introduced at the English Reformation was the re-introduction of leavened bread at the communion, a practice followed then as now in the East, but not the West. It fell out of use again shortly afterwards, but the Reformers were right about this one: the word used by Jesus at his Last Supper, a highly unusual Passover celebration, was (so the Greek-speaking evangelists indicate) a word for leavened bread, not unleavened.

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Introduction

Much of the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 was an elegant translation of the old Sarum Use of the mediaeval English church. This prayer, appointed for the Communion Service between the Comfortable Words and the distribution of the bread and wine, was one of the new ones. It blends passages from Mark 7:28 and John 6:56 with a traditional Roman collect and the Greek Liturgy of Saint Basil. Its name comes from the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637.

We do not presume to come to this thy Table (O merciful Lord) trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies: We be not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table; but thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore (gracious Lord) so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, in these holy Mysteries, that we may continually dwell in him, and he in us, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his Body, and our souls washed through his most precious Blood. Amen.