Proper Prefaces

We do not presume to come to this your Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness,¹

but in your manifold and great mercies.²

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your Table.³

But you are the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy:⁴ Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your 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.⁵