Bathing the Lord's Supper in Prayer

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Considering Our Thanksgiving For What Christ Has Done For Sinners

Good Morning,

I apologize ahead of time because I have given you a ton of text to read today. However, as I was looking at what part to cover I thought it good to let you look at one of the suggested prayers that the Directory of Public Worship gives for encouragement to the minister as he prepares to bring the sacrament to bear on God’s covenant people. One of the things we will notice in this week’s post and the one to come next week is that the DPW marks out multiple prayers during the administration of the Lord’s Supper. At Bethany you will remember that when I oversee the table we do the same. There is a prayer to open, a prayer before the administration, a prayer between the bread and the cup, and then a prayer to close out. Bathing communion in prayer is a reminder that it is a divine act which is taking place as we gather together to see the Lord’s blessings. We should never be in a position to rush through what should involve deep contemplation and spiritual exercise as we feed by faith on the risen Christ.

Let’s read for today:

Let the words of institution be read out of the Evangelists, or out of the first Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, Chap. 11:23. I have received of the Lord, &c. to the 27th Verse, which the minister may, when he seeth requisite, explain and apply.

Let the prayer, thanksgiving, or blessing of the bread and wine, be to this effect:

“With humble and hearty acknowledgment of the greatness of our misery, from which neither man, nor angel was able to deliver us, and of our great unworthiness of the least of all God’s mercies; to give thanks to God for all his benefits, and especially for that great benefit of our redemption, the love of God the Father, the sufferings and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, by which we are delivered; and for all means of grace, the word and sacraments; and for this sacrament in particular, by which Christ, and all his benefits, are applied and sealed up unto us, which, notwithstanding the denial of them unto others, are in great mercy continued unto us, after so much and long abuse of them all.

To profess that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ, by whom alone we receive liberty and life, have access to the throne of grace, are admitted to eat and drink at his own table, and are sealed up by his Spirit to an assurance of happiness and everlasting life.

Earnestly to pray to God, the Father of all mercies, and God of all consolation, to vouchsafe his gracious presence, and the effectual working of his Spirit in us; and so to sanctify these elements both of bread and wine, and to bless his own ordinance, that we may receive by faith the body and blood of Jesus Christ, crucified for us, and so to feed upon him, that he may be one with us, and we one with him; that he may live in us, and we in him, and to him who hath loved us, and given himself for us.”

All which he is to endeavour to perform with suitable affections, answerable to such an holy action, and to stir up the like in the people.

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