As we approach Easter Sunday, I thought it would be beneficial to stop and meditate on Christ’s work during the last days of Holy Week. Here are some traditional prayers to help aid in your meditation and reflection on Christ’s institution of Holy Communion, for this Maundy Thursday.
From the Lutheran Book of Prayer:
Eternal Savior, how can my heart show its appreciation of Your love? How can I serve you best, who has loved me and given Your life for me? You have sealed to me the forgiveness of all my sins and offered me reconciliation and peace in the blessed Sacrament You instituted on this day. You have promised to give me, with the bread and the cup, Your body and blood for the remission of all my sins. Oh, what amazing love! What riches of divine wisdom! In awe and wonderment I ponder this gracious gift. May I ever appreciate this blessed Sacrament that You have bidden me to use as a memorial of Your death and a monument of Your redemptive love. May I come worthily each time I approach Your altar.
O Savior, cast me not away from Your presence. Let not my sins remain with me because of impenitence of heart or because I doubt your Word and promises. Let me become one with You and all Your saints as I receive with them this blessed Sacrament. Make me Yours, and give me strength to amend my sinful life and walk closer to You.
Preserve in Your Church this blessed Sacrament, given on this sacred day. Let thousands and ten-thousands find through it the assurance of forgiveness, peace, and salvation. And grant that I and all who are Yours may be faithful to Your Word and Sacraments, that Your name be glorified, Your will be done, and we at last live with You in Your eternal kingdom forevermore. Amen.
From The Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, did institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may thankfully receive the same in remembrance of him who in these holy mysteries giveth us a pledge of life eternal, the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end, Amen.
World without end, Amen!
