Prayers before the Blessed Sacrament

by Monsignor Elliott

- Prayer of Faith
- Prayer of Adoration
- Scriptural Reflections
- Prayer Requests
- Spontaneous Prayer
- Prayer to Mary, our Mother
- Prayer to the Holy Trinity

Prayer of Faith

In order to bring to mind where we are, it may be useful to make a small act of Faith, silently, again and again. For example:

1. You are Jesus. You are here.
2. My Lord and my God.
3. You are the living Bread from heaven.
4. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
5. I believe you are here – really, truly, substantially.

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Prayer of Adoration

Lord Jesus Christ, I adore you.
I adore you for what you are – my Saviour. I adore you for what you will – my Sacrifice. I adore you for what you intend – my Food.
Truly God, truly Man, you are present, risen and glorious beneath this veil of Bread.
I adore you in your humility, eternal Son of the Father, involved in our world, enfleshed in our time, coming to us now under this simple form of Bread.
I adore you in your power, risen Lord, King and Master of matter, space and time, the Victor who has liberated your People from the dominion of Satan and death.
I adore you, above all for your love, and I see this love in your humility and your power, hidden in this Blessed Sacrament, this generous gift of your love to us, your love to the Father.
Lord Jesus Christ, I adore you.

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Scriptural Reflections

Before making a meditation we should ask the Holy Spirit for understanding:

Come Holy Spirit, enlighten my mind, strengthen my heart, encourage my will, so that I may truly understand the meaning of this sacred Word.

Come Holy Spirit, guide me to a deeper knowledge of this mystery of Faith.

Following are some key passages on the Eucharist:

The Eucharist is instituted by Christ
1 Corinthians 11: 23-25
Mark 14: 22-24
Matthew 26: 26-28
Luke 22: 15-20

The great Eucharistic discourse
John 6: 25-27 – Men must seek Christ the true Bread.
John 6: 28-34 – God gives us this true Bread.
John 6: 35-40 – Christ is the true Bread.
John 6: 41-51 – We find this in the Eucharist.
John 6: 52-58 – In the Eucharist we find eternal life.

The Holy Sacrifice
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 – Christ is our Passover.
1 Corinthians 10: 14-22 – False sacrifice and the true Sacrifice.
Ephesians 2: 13-18 – Christ is the way to the Father.
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5: 1-10 – Christ our High Priest and Victim.
Hebrews 7: 15-28 – Christ and Melchisedech.
Hebrews 8 – Christ and His New Covenant Sacrifice.
Hebrews 9: 11-28 – Christ the Sacrifice.
Hebrews 10: 1-18 – Christ’s will in Sacrifice for us.
Hebrews 10: 19-25 – Through Christ to the Father.
Hebrews 13: 8-16 – Our community altar.
Revelation 5: 6-14 – The eternal Sacrifice.
Matthew 5: 23-24 – The Sacrifice of reconciliation.

Holy Communion
1 Corinthians 11: 27-32 – Discerning the Body of Christ.
John 15: 1-12 – Union with Christ the Vine.
Revelation 3:20 – Union in a holy meal.
Revelation 19: 6-9 – The marriage feast of the Lamb.
Luke 24:36-43 – The Presence of the risen Lord.
Luke 24: 28-35 – ‘Known to them in the breaking of the bread.’

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Prayer Requests

We may choose to pray for the needs of others and our own needs, placing these before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Lord Jesus Christ, I want to place before you now the needs of others. You are involved, identified, at one with the world, in this world as the Redeemer, presenting yourself to this world in the simple form of Bread.

Eucharistic Lord, hear my prayers.

Eucharistic Lord, hear my prayers. For others… For world problems… local problems… For friends… For peace… For enemies… For the holy souls…

In our own words, in our own free way, we add any other areas of need.

Lord Jesus Christ, I place myself before you. Here is my life, my past, my present, my future. You know what is best.
I am sorry for the past, especially…
I thank you for… (here we can express past joy)
I am involved at present in…(here we can express our interests and our problems, in our own words, in a direct way, placing them before God)
I look to the future in hope… (here we can express our innermost hopes, asking for particular graces, favours, needs, making requests, leaving the future in the power of God’s Will)

Lord Jesus Christ, hear my prayers.

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Spontaneous Prayer

There are many other ways of praying before the Blessed Sacrament, and what is suggested here is simply an outline because this personal prayer should be truly spontaneous, in our own words. We will learn in such prayer, whether silent, simple or even wordless, really to appreciate Holy Communion.

Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament will thus stem from the Liturgy and lead us back to the Liturgy. By experiencing this extension of the Liturgy, we will learn to love and enjoy the mysteries of the Sacrifice in the form of a holy meal.

We will integrate this supreme Sacrament into daily life. We will gain the strength and the will to be active, practical Christians.

Adoration is something we do because the Holy Spirit is within us, helping us to pray. We do not adore alone. We are, each of us, part of the Church, not only in this world but in eternity.

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Prayer to Mary, our Mother

We have a perfect model in adoration in Mary, our Mother. Let us always call on her for help and companionship.

Mary Immaculate, Mother of the Church, our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us, adore with us, help us to adore, teach us the way of faithful adoration, show us the way of humility in which the dignity of human nature is restored, pilgrims with you in one People.
Mary Immaculate, always direct us to your Son in the Eucharist.
Through you may we trust in Christ Jesus.
Like you, may we trust in Christ Jesus.
With you, may we count all things as nothing, except insofar as we know him, our Saviour and our Lord. Hail Mary…

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Prayer to the Holy Trinity

Finally, we may see Christ in the Eucharist as the Way to the Father in the Holy Spirit – that the Blessed Sacrament incorporates each of us into the open and endless Life of the Holy Trinity.

Glory to you Eternal Father,
for we thank you for the Gift of your Son in the Eucharist, the way of thanksgiving you provide for all people.

Glory to you Eternal Son,
for we thank you for your obedient love, in your birth, your redeeming death, your resurrection and exaltation, all this for us, to your Father, for us, returned to us always in this Eucharistic Gift.

Glory to you Eternal Spirit,
for we thank you for your loving power, transforming the bread and wine of man into the Gift of the Son from the Father, and we thank you for your life within us, renewed by Holy Communion, for your life within us, ever showing us how to pray, bonding us together as one people.

With you and in you, O Christ, we offer ourselves today, as one Host.

‘Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen.’

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