Holy and Great Thursday

Establishment of the Lord’s Mystical Supper

There was a time in my life when I viewed the Eucharist as just a symbol. What really mattered was a person’s confession of faith. And this confession was way too often scrutinized and judged insufficient by those of us who felt we were in the know. But the Lord’s salvation is not like this. And the first time I heard this beautiful prayer from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, my heart was smitten by God’s abundant mercy:

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 are 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, 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.

Prayer of humble access

Indeed, He is the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. And now as we remember this day when He ate the Mystical Supper with his disciples, may we too partake of his unchanging mercy. Kalo Pascha! Blessed future celebration of the Lord’s rising from the dead!