Prayer Before the Communion
O Lord, I beseech Thee to draw near to me this day in Thy great mercy. I have the near prospect of approaching Thee at Thy gracious Sacramental Ordinance. As Thou art preparing for me a table in the wilderness, do Thou prepare me for the table. 0 send forth Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me: let them bring me unto Thy holy hill and unto Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the Altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. May it be my experience within the gates of the Sanctuary, and while partaking of the Sacred Feast, — “This is none other than the House of God, this is the Gate of heaven;” — “I have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
Fill me with a humbling sense of my own demerits and shortcomings. I am not worthy to eat of the crumbs which fall from the Master’s Table; how much less to be seated at the banqueting Table itself, and to enjoy the blessedness of near and endearing fellowship with Thee. Come, Lord, and search me: — Come and try me: Come and see if there be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting. Impart, above all, an inspiring and elevating sense of Thy great and infinite love to me in Christ
Jesus. At this, His own commemorative Ordinance, may I have a realising apprehension of all that mystery of agony and suffering He so willingly endured for me. May the near sight of Gethsemane and Calvary give me deeper and intenser views of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, as that which filled His cup of anguish. May I be enabled, as I go afresh to this covenanting ground, — not only to confess my sins, but to have the hearty desire and resolution to forsake them; and to live, in the time to come, not unto myself — but unto Him who loved me and gave Himself for me, that He might redeem me from all iniquity, and purify me unto Himself, as one of His own peculiar people, zealous of good works. My earnest prayer is, to be brought more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of redeeming love: — that the life Thou hast preserved by Thy mercy, and which Thou hast ransomed at such a price, may be henceforth consecrated to Thy praise. May the blessed Feast prove a hallowed means of strengthening within me every Christian grace, and of confirming every good resolution. May this be my earnest aspiration, ‘Lord, evermore give me this Bread.’ Like Thy servant of old, in the strength of that meat, may I go on, from day to day, till I reach the true mount of God above.
Bestow Thy blessing on all my fellow-communicants. There is bread enough in our Father’s house and to spare. May those who through sickness and other restraints of Thy providence, are unable to go to the Courts of Thy Sanctuary, know that Thou art not confined to temples or to tables “made with hands, — that wherever there is a true worshipper, there, there is a prayer-hearing — a prayer-answering — a covenant-keeping God. May they that tarry at home divide the spoiL
Bless Thy ministering servants who are to be this day the dispensers of the Holy rite. As they deal the Bread of Life to others, may their own souls be abundantly satisfied. Jet Thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let Thy saints shout for joy. The Lord bless the House of Israel; — the Lord bless the House of Aaron: both small and great that fear the Lord, do Thou surely bless them. So may this appointed Ordinance prove, to each and all of us, a season of reviving and refreshing from Thine own immediate presence.
And all I ask, or hope for, is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Saviour. Amen.