All-powerful and Everlasting God

Prayer before Holy Communion

All-powerful and everlasting God, behold I approach the sacrament of your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I approach as one infirm to the Physician of life, as one unclean to the Fountain of mercy, as one blind to the Light of eternal splendor, as one poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth.

I beg, therefore, that from the abundance of your enormous kindness, you would

cure my sickness, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness.

May I receive

the Bread of angels, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

with such reverence and humility, such contrition and devotion, such purity and faith, such resolve and attention, that it may help to bring forward the salvation of my soul.

Allow me, I plead, to receive not only the sacrament of your Body and Blood but also the reality and power of this sacrament.

O most gentle God, let me receive the body of your only begotten Son which he took from the Virgin Mary so that I may merit to be incorporated into his mystical body, and be counted among his members.

O most loving Father, grant that your beloved Son whom I am now about to receive in a hidden form, I may in time behold, no longer in via, but face to face forever,

Who, with you, lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.

Amen.