Prayers in Honor of the Eucharist

Selection of prayers extracted from the Office of Corpus Christi (These prayers from the Office have been translated by Vincent Corrigan; the remaining devotional prayers, however, unless otherwise noted, have been translated by Rev. Paul Murray, OP.)

Magnificat antiphon from First Vespers

O how kind is your Spirit, Lord, who, to show your sweetness towards your children, provides the sweetest bread from heaven, filling the hungry with good things, sending the haughty rich away empty.

Magnificat antiphon from Second Vespers

O sacred banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of his passion renewed, the soul is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

Magnificat antiphon from Octave

He has made a memorial of his wonderful works, the gracious and merciful Lord. He has given food to those who fear him.

Prayer from the Office Hours and Collect from the Mass

God, who has left us, in a wonderful sacrament, a memorial of your passion, grant, we pray, that we may venerate the mystery of your body and blood, so that we may always feel within ourselves the fruit of your redemption. Who lives and reigns with God the Father in unity with the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Secret from the Mass

We ask, Lord, that you mercifully grant to your Church the gifts of unity and peace, which are mystically signified beneath the gifts we offer. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

Post-Communion Prayer from the Mass

Grant, we ask, O Lord, that we be filled with the everlasting enjoyment of your divinity, which the temporal perception of your precious body and blood prefigures. Who lives and reigns with God the Father in unity with the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

During the elevation of the Body of Christ (From the Hymn at Lauds in the Office of Corpus Christi; the Marietti edition (Opuscula theologica, vol. 2, 1954) includes this prayer under this title in its selection of piae preces.)

O saving Victim, you who opens the door of heaven, wars and enemies press us; give us strength, bring us help.

St. Thomas Aquinas is said to have prayed, with tears and great devotion, the following excerpt from the Te Deum during the elevation of the Body of Christ (See Ystoria sancti Thome de Aquino de Guillaume de Tocco (1323), ed. Claire le Brun-Gouanvic (Toronto, Ontario: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1996), ch. 58, 198, ll. 55–57.)

You are the King of Glory, * O Christ.

You are the everlasting * Son of the Father.

When you took upon yourself to deliver man, * you did not abhor the Virgin’s womb.

When you had overcome the sharpness of death, * you opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

You sit at the right hand of God, * in the glory of the Father.

We believe that you shall come * to be our Judge.

We therefore ask you, help your servants, * whom you have redeemed with your precious Blood.

Make them to be numbered with your saints, * in glory everlasting.

O Lord, save your people, * and bless your inheritance.

Govern them, * and lift them up forever.

Day by day * we magnify you;

And we worship your name * forever, world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us * this day without sin.

O Lord, have mercy upon us, * have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let your mercy be upon us, * as our trust is in you.

O Lord, in you have I trusted, * let me never be confounded.