Part 38: Prayers of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion

 

The Prayers of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion form a vital theological epilogue to the Divine Liturgy, illuminating the depth of what the faithful have just received and emphasizing how the Eucharist must be internalized and lived. These prayers are not ancillary devotions—they are the fitting response to having received the Body and Blood of Christ. In them, the Church teaches us how to digest grace spiritually, offering us a vocabulary of awe, humility, contrition, and joy.

Eucharistic Awe and Personal Unworthiness

The priest begins with a threefold invocation: “Glory to thee, O God. Glory to thee, O God. Glory to thee, O God.” This Trinitarian doxology is a spontaneous overflow of thanksgiving and serves as a parallel to the threefold confession of Peter on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:15–17), now transformed into liturgical gratitude. St. John Chrysostom emphasizes the necessity of such thanks:

“The Eucharist is a mystery of joy, and yet it demands tears of gratitude. For what excuse shall we have, if, after partaking of such Mysteries, we live carelessly?”
(Homily 24 on 1 Corinthians)

The first prayer—marked by contrition and wonder—begins: “I thank thee, O Lord my God, that thou hast not rejected me a sinner…” It reveals the paradox of divine mercy: the sinner is not cast off, but made a communicant of “thy Holy Things.” This echoes the humble boldness of the Roman centurion: “I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof…” (Matthew 8:8). Yet Christ does enter, sacramentally, and the communicant responds with trembling gratitude.

Here we find the petition that the Mysteries become to the communicant “unto healing of soul and body, unto the averting of every adversary…unto love unfeigned…” etc. These twelve clauses function as a spiritual map of transformation. They correspond to the sanctification of the whole person—mind, body, will, affections, and relationships. The Holy Gifts are not ends in themselves but means toward theosis—union with God. St. Gregory Palamas affirms:

“In the communion of the divine Body and Blood, our bodies receive a seed of resurrection, and our souls are filled with grace, so that we may live a new life in Christ.”
(Homily on the Precious and Life-Giving Cross)

The Prayer of St. Basil: Eucharist as Shelter and Sustenance

St. Basil the Great’s thanksgiving prayer reinforces the Eucharist as ongoing nourishment: “Grant me worthily to partake of thy Holy Things with a clean conscience until my last breath…” This line places the entire life of the believer within the Eucharistic horizon. The Eucharist is not a singular moment but the daily bread (ἄρτος ἐπιούσιος) of our spiritual journey.

St. Basil’s image of shelter—“under thy shadow and wings”—recalls Psalm 91 and also the overshadowing of the Spirit at the Annunciation. This imagery affirms that Christ, who entered the Virgin’s womb, now enters the communicant’s soul. St. Basil again writes:

“The Holy Spirit prepares the soul for communion, and Christ, the Bread of Life, abides in those who love Him, giving them strength, wisdom, and grace unto the end.”
(On the Holy Spirit, ch. 15)

Simeon Metaphrastes: Eucharist as Fire and Purification

The prayer of St. Simeon Metaphrastes is perhaps the most visceral and mystical. It begins with a warning and a plea: “O thou who dost willingly give thy flesh to me as food, who art a fire burning the unworthy, let me not be consumed…” Here, Christ is likened to fire (cf. Hebrews 12:29), not as a destructive force but as purifying flame. This prayer is a spiritual anatomy lesson, as the communicant prays that Christ enter “into all my joints, reins, heart…”—a reversal of sin’s fragmentation.

The imagery of burning the thorns of iniquity recalls the burning bush that was not consumed (Exodus 3:2), a type of the Theotokos and, now, of the soul filled with Christ. St. John Chrysostom makes this connection:

“Let us approach the fire of love which does not burn but enlightens, which consumes not our substance but our sins.”
(Homily on Matthew 82.5)

Theotokological Thanksgiving: Communion through Her Who Bore God

The prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos grounds our Eucharistic life in the Incarnation. The communicant thanks her for making him “worthy to be a communicant of the immaculate Body and precious Blood of thy Son.” This acknowledgment is not mere sentiment—it is theological necessity. As St. John of Damascus teaches:

“He who deifies us was born of the Virgin, and it is from her that He took the flesh which we now receive in the Eucharist.”
(Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 4.13)

This prayer is profoundly psychological. It asks the Theotokos to “enlighten my heart’s intellectual eyes…grant me contrition and compunction…recall of my reasoning…”—a sanctification of nous and logismos (the rational faculties), completing the journey from confession to communion, from fragmentation to wholeness.

The Eucharist as Eschatological Hope

Across all five prayers runs a thread of eschatological longing: “In thy fearful second coming…make me, a sinner, worthy to stand at the right hand of thy glory…” Communion is not only participation in Christ’s death and resurrection; it is also a foretaste of the banquet in the Kingdom (Luke 22:30). The prayer ends with the image of “everlasting rest,” echoing Hebrews 4:9 and the Church’s longing for the day without evening.

In the words of St. John Chrysostom:

“This Table is the table of the Kingdom; the gifts upon it are not earthly but heavenly. We feed on the Lamb who is standing, not slain.”
(Homily 24 on 1 Corinthians)

Conclusion: A Life of Eucharistic Memory

The thanksgiving prayers after Communion are not optional add-ons but are integral to the Eucharistic ethos. They remind us that Communion is not something done to us but something received by us, with fear and love. It transforms our entire anthropology—soul and body, reason and senses, memory and desire—into a living temple of the Holy Spirit.

The final line captures the Eucharistic life in miniature: “That I may ever remember thy grace, and never live unto myself, but unto thee…” This is the natural response to divine generosity. To have communed with Christ is to no longer live for oneself (Galatians 2:20), but to become Eucharist for the world.

Thus, these prayers are not simply thanksgiving—they are a return to Eden, a restoration of communion, and a pledge to carry the light of Christ into the darkness of the world, until the eternal Pascha dawns.