'Convert the food that we have taken into spiritual nourishment': the significance of the post-Communion in the Prayer Book Holy Communion
To begin with, he roots the post-communion prayers and thanksgivings in the example of Our Lord:
Our Lord concluded his last supper with that admirable prayer, which is recorded by St. John, and a hymn mentioned by St. Matthew, and supposed to be the paschal alleluiah.
One can easily imagine the dismissive response of contemporary liturgists to this suggestion, but surely it has merit. As John Behr - in his superb John the Theologian & his Paschal Gospel (2019) - reminds us, Jesus' prayer in John 17 is "as the priest before the altar". There is, then, a deeply eucharistic character to the High Priestly prayer, for the Holy Communion is the "Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death". The post-Communion Prayer of Oblation and Prayer of Thanksgiving flow from the High Priestly prayer, holding us before the mystery of the Lord's saving death and passion, of which we have partaken in Sacrament.
As for invoking the "hymn" of Matthew 26:30 with regards to the Prayer Book position for Gloria in excelsis, again we know the dismay of contemporary liturgists. Despite such dismay, there is something to be said for regarding the post-Communion use of Gloria in excelsis as reflecting the paschal thanksgiving offered by Our Lord and His disciples, for, as the Apostle declares, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us".
Shepherd then points to the patristic practice of thanksgiving after reception, seen in the Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Jerusalem (Lecture 23.22):
All Churches have followed his example. Cyril directs the communicant not to withdraw after receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, but to wait for the prayer, and give thanks to God for having thought him worthy of partaking of such great mysteries.
As we have seen on many occasions in these readings from Shepherd's commentary, he demonstrates both a lively knowledge of patristic authors and an insistence that the Prayer Book Holy Communion coheres with them. What is more, note the ease with he refers "receiving the Body and Blood of Christ", following Cyril's "after you have partaken of the Body of Christ, draw near also to the Cup of His Blood": there is no doubt for Shepherd - in his quite ordinary, conventional Prayer Book commentary, over three decades before the start of the Oxford Movement - that those who draw near to receive the Sacrament in the English Church, according to the Prayer Book liturgy, feed on the Lord's Body and Blood, no less than those who received in the solemn liturgy known to Cyril of Jerusalem.
Finally, Shepherd emphasises the spiritual significance of the post-Communion; indeed, why it is necessary:
After receiving the Lord's Supper, we conclude the solemnity with prayers and thanksgivings, which if we perform them with due devotion, will convert the food that we have partaken of into spiritual nourishment.
Thanksgiving after partaking of the holy Sacrament is, therefore, an integral part of worthy reception. As the words of administration declare, "with thanksgiving ... be thankful". Likewise the Catechism states that it is "required of them who come to the Lord's Supper" to have "a thankful remembrance of his death". Thanksgiving after reception is part of what it is to feed on Christ "after an heavenly and spiritual manner" (Article 28). To minimise the post-Communion thanksgiving, reducing it to almost a mere passing comment (and this is a risk in some contemporary rites, with their very abbreviated post-Communion), is to weaken a crucial aspect of what it is to faithfully receive the holy Sacrament.
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