Prayer of Humble Access

The Prayer of Humble Access is the name traditionally given to a prayer contained in many Anglican eucharistic liturgies.

The prayer was an integral part of the early Books of Common Prayer of the Church of England and has continued to be used throughout much of the Anglican Communion. Its name is derived from the fact that it is said as a prayer of preparation before receiving Holy Communion (hence, humble access to the altar or to the Blessed Sacrament). The prayer appeared in the earliest prayer book, the so-called "First Prayer Book of Edward VI" published in 1549. It is derived from a similar Latin prayer in the Sarum liturgy - and, like much of the Sarum use, was translated and adapted by Thomas Cranmer, the main author of the early English prayer books.

In its earliest appearance the prayer followed the confession and absolution and "comfortable words" (which, in 1549, came after the Eucharistic Prayer).

In the revision of 1552 the prayer appears immediately after the proper preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. In subsequent revisions by various national churches, and in the proposed 1928 English BCP revision, the prayer was moved to after the Lord's Prayer and before the Agnus Dei, after which the consecrated elements are administered. The 1662 revision reads as follows:

::"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."

Many contemporary Anglican liturgies have either retained the 1662 wording or revised it to varying degrees. Some contemporary versions omit the phrase "that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood", since it suggests that the eucharistic elements have the power to absolve the partaker of sin.Fact|date=November 2007 Some Anglican eucharistic liturgies omit the prayer entirely. In the 1979 Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America the Prayer of Humble Access is an option in the Rite I (traditional language) eucharistic rite but not in the contemporary-language Rite II service. There is some similarity with the prayer immediately prior to communion in the Roman Rite Mass: " _la. Domine, non sum dignus, ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea" (translated: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" or "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed". This prayer is based on St Matthew 8:8.

References

*Anglican Church of Canada. "Book of Alternative Services". Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 1985.
*Hatchett, Marion J. "Prayer Books". In "The Study of Anglicanism", ed. by Stephen Sykes and John Booty. London: SPCK, 1988.
*"The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VI". Everyman's Library, no. 448. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1910.