Prayer Before Communion

Dear Jesus, I ardently desire to receive You. The moment draws near, the rapturous moment, in which I shall receive You, my God, into my soul. I come to You, I run to meet You with the utmost devotion and reverence of which I, as a little child, am capable. Stretch forth Your most sacred hands to embrace my soul-Your pierced hands which were stretched forth amid the anguish of Your Passion to embrace all sinners. I stretch forth not only my hands, but my heart and my soul, to embrace You and to lead You into the innermost and secret recess of my heart.

Would that I had within me as a great a devotion, love and purity as You have ever been adored with by the heart of any mortal. Would that I were filled with all virtues, with all holy desires, with perfect devotion. Would that I had the purity of all Your angels, the charity of all Your apostles, the holiness of all confessors, the chastity and cleanness of heart of all virgins and the holy fire of love of all the martyrs. Would that I could receive You now with all that devotion, reverence and love with which Your most Blessed Mother received You in Your Incarnation, and in Your adorable Eucharist! Would that I had Your own sacred and divine Heart, that I might receive You as Your ineffable Majesty deserves!

I offer You, my sweetest Jesus-to be my fitting preparation, to make amends for all my unworthiness, my negligences, my lack of preparation, devotion and affections-I offer You the love which the Saints and the Blessed Mother had when they received You in this Holy Sacrament.

I offer You, most holy Jesus, Your own meritorious Heart, and all the ineffable virtues and graces which the most Blessed Trinity bestowed without measure upon it, that all my vileness and all my unworthiness may be covered, and that a proper and most peaceful abode may be prepared for You in my soul, Amen.

— Author unknown