Prayer of Humble Access

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The Prayer of Humble Access was an integral part of the early Books of Common Prayer of the Church of England, and has continued to be used throughout the Anglican Communion. Its name is derived from the fact that it is recited before partaking of the Eucharist (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 the main author of the early English prayer books, Thomas Cranmer.

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

We do not presume to come to this thy table (o mercifull lord) trusting in our owne righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies: we be not woorthie so much as to gather up the cromes under thy table: but thou art the same lorde whose propertie is alwayes to haue mercie: Graunt us therefore (gracious lorde) so to eate the flesh of thy dere sonne Jesus Christ, and to drynke his bloud in these holy Misteries that we may continuallye dwell in hym, and he in us, that our synfull bodyes may bee made cleane by his body, and our soules washed through hys most precious bloud. Amen.

The prayer was omitted from the more Calvinist 1552 prayer book and the subsequent 1559 and 1604 revisions, but it was re-inserted in the 1662 revision - which would be the standard liturgical text for the Communion for the next three hundred years affecting the adaptation of all national Books of Common Prayer. In that revision the prayer appears immediately after the proper preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. In subsequent revisions by various national churches, and in the 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.

National Books of Common Prayer have either retained or slightly amended the 1662 wording. The 1985 Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada, for instance, omits 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. 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. It does find a close equivalent in the Roman Catholic Novus Ordo Missae as "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" and in the Tridentine Mass's thrice-said "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed" (Domine, non sum dignus, ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea.)

[edit] 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.