Prepare for holy communion with this prayer of joy and gratitude

If you haven’t been able to receive communion for a long time, make sure to prepare your heart for the gift Jesus will give you.Sometimes we can take receiving holy communion for granted, being able to attend Mass every Sunday or even every day. However, when even that is not possible, such as during the most recent quarantine, we may finally realize how much of a gift holy communion is.

If it has been a long time since we received holy communion, we should make the proper preparations. In addition to finding an opportunity to go to confession, we should also prepare our hearts with a prayer of joy and gratitude.

Here is an example, excerpted from A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity. It reminds us of the beauty behind holy communion and how it unites us with our beloved, Jesus.

O most loving Father I come to you with full confidence, and throw myself into the arms of your most sweet love and mercy.

I hope, O Lord, that you will never cast me away from your Presence, you who so lovingly invite us to yourself, saying, Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-burdened, and I will refresh you. Behold, I come, O Lord, receive me according to you word, and I shall live, and let me not be disappointed of my hope.

Accept, Lord, my heart as a burnt offering; I give it all to you; I give you my eyes, to see you alone and all things in you: my ears, to hear your Word: my mouth, my lips and tongue, to be filled with your praise, and to sing of your glory and of your greatness all the day long: my hands, to be stretched forth in prayer to you in heaven, or in alms to the poor, and to do you will: my feet, to be led into the way of peace: all my members, that they may say, Lord, who is like unto you?

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless His holy name: bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. I now freely surrender all these earthly things, for in you alone I have all things: I renounce myself, for I am your: I live, yet not I, but you, Christ Jesus, lives in me. I love you with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength. Amen.