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Summary
- Traditional prayers before communion include the Anglican Prayer of Humble Access (1928 Book of Common Prayer), the Catholic “Lord, I am not worthy,” Thomas Aquinas’s prayer and the Orthodox “I believe, O Lord, and I confess.”
- For leaders, 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 gives the words of the Last Supper, and the Didache, the oldest surviving Christian church order, gives thanksgivings over the cup and the bread.
- After communion, the 1928 Prayer Book has a prayer of thanksgiving, and the Roman Missal places the Anima Christi among the thanksgiving prayers; the Anima Christi dates from the fourteenth century, before Ignatius of Loyola.
- Short prayers cover confession, feeling unworthy, a grudge, a wandering mind, a communion service, thanks, peace, the week ahead and a child’s first communion.
- Catholics who cannot receive can make a spiritual communion, and the 1928 Prayer Book says a sick person who repents and believes receives the benefit of the sacrament without eating it.
- Catholics fast for at least one hour before communion (canon 919) and confess grave sin first (Catechism 1385); the Baptist Faith and Message calls the Lord’s Supper a symbolic memorial.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 51:10; 116:12–13; Matthew 8:8; 26:26–28; John 14:27; 15:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 11:23–26, 28; 1 John 1:9). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Holy Communion: Prayer of Humble Access and words of administration, p. 82; words of administration of the Cup and the Thanksgiving after Communion, p. 83; Communion of the Sick, rubric on those who cannot receive, p. 323. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “Lord, I am not worthy” and note on spiritual communion, p. 102; Anima Christi, p. 103; prayer before Holy Communion (“To be said daily”), pp. 311–312. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Lasance, Francis Xavier. With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflections. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1911. “Act of Spiritual Communion of Saint Alphonsus Liguori,” p. 206. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/With_God/The_Holy_Sacrifice_of_the_Mass
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, pp. 116–119; Prayers in Preparation for the Holy Communion, prayer VI, p. 575. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (Didache), chapter 9. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing, 1886. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07/anf07.ix.ii.ix.html
- “Didache.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Didache
- Frisbee, Samuel. “Anima Christi.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01515a.htm
- Gunter, Paul, OSB. “The Priest’s Preparation and Thanksgiving for Mass.” EWTN Library. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/priests-preparation-and-thanksgiving-for-mass-9237
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraph 1376: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P41.HTM; paragraphs 1385–1386: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P42.HTM
- Code of Canon Law (1983), canon 919. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann879-958_en.html
- Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), article VII, “Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/
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