laudable Practice

Preparing to read the Commandments at the Holy Communion on this Monday of Holy Week, I turned to Taylor's discourse on the Decalogue in The Great Exemplar . Here Taylor - referencing Clement of Alexandria, a favourite in his works -  sets forth the place of the Commandments in the Christian moral vision, as the way that is fulfilled in "Christian charity". This is the context for the saying of the Commandments in the Holy Communion, the way that is to taken up "in the mystical body of thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people", who "continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in". St. Clement of Alexandria saith, the Pharisees' righteousness consisted in the not doing evil, and that Christ superadded this also, that we must do the contrary, good, and so exceed the Pharisaical measure ...  But the balance in  which the Judge of quick and dead weighs Chris tians is, not only t...

When all have communicated, the minister shall return to the Lord's table, and reverently place upon it what remaineth of the consecrated elements, covering the same with a fair linen cloth. This Rubric, taken from the Scottish Liturgy, was likewise added in 1661; the ceremony which it prescribes, was probably observed before.  When John Shepherd, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), turns to the rubric following the administration of the holy Sacrament, we yet again see a significant example of how a rich eucharistic piety is found in the pre-1833 Church of England. Shepherd - again - turns to patristic sources to explore the meaning of a provision of the Prayer Book rite: This cloth, by the Latin ecclesiastical writers is called the corporal, because it was wrapped round the body of Christ in the Eucharist. It was in use in the time of Isidore Peleusiota, who wrote A.D. 412, and says, "the fine linen cloth, which is str...

In his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd places the 1662 words of administration in the context of patristic usage: In the primitive Church the Priest pronounced these words, "The Body of Christ, or the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ," and the communicant answered "Amen." Afterwards the priests said, " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto eternal life," as appears from the Sacramentary of Gregory. The latter was, of course, preserved in the first reformed English liturgy of 1549, as Shepherd notes: The forms in Edward's first book, were "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." And when the cup was presented, "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life."  Once again, Shepherd - decades before 1833 - understands th...

The people are to receive the Communion all meekly kneeling. When, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd addresses the Prayer Book rubric directing that the Sacrament is to be received "meekly kneeling", he immediately draws a parallel between this and the practice of the patristic and Eastern churches: In the ancient Church the people appear to have more generally received the Communion standing. Yet they "stood with fear and trembling, with silence and downcast eyes." Cyril directs the communicant "to draw near, bowing his body in the posture of worship and adoration." In the modern Greek Church the communicant does not kneel, but inclines his body, and is instructed to exercise at the time this act of faith: "I believe and I acknowledge that thou art Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, who camest into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."  While it may seem coun...

In his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd strangely appears to have little to say about one of the glories of the Prayer Book Holy Communion, the Prayer of Humble Access. Indeed, the short paragraph below is the sum of his thoughts: This address, the priest kneeling down at the Lord's table, offers up in the name of all them that shall receive the Communion. In ancient Liturgies we meet with prayers resembling this. Thus in the Liturgy ascribed to James, "We come to this divine mystery, unworthy indeed, but relying on thy goodness." And again, "we trust not in our own righteousness, but in thy mercy." But in no form extant, can the humble and devout Christian so fully, as in this, express his sense of his own unworthiness, and pray the gracious Father of all mankind, to have compassion upon his infirmities, to relieve his necessities, and to fulfil his desires. It is a short but yet significant par...

Discussing the proper prefaces of the Prayer Book Holy Communion, John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - notes the "great antiquity" of the practice and how the English Reformation appropriately retained such observance of the principal Christian feasts: As the Church, at the celebration of the Eucharist, gave thanks for all mercies and blessings, so it peculiarly praised God for the mercy commemorated upon the festival, on which the Communion was celebrated. Hence is derived the origin of these proper or particular prefaces, with the custom of adding them to the general preface ... That they are of great antiquity is evident from their being mentioned by writers of the fourth century. The practice of making at the thanksgiving in the Communion a special mention of the mercy commemorated upon the festival, seemed so reasonable to our Reformers, that they retained the proper prefaces for Christmas, Easter, ...

As John Shepherd moves to discuss the Prayer Book rite's Sursum corda in detail, in his  A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), what is perhaps most evident is his use of patristic sources to expound the meaning of these versicles. Consider, for example, his use of Cyril of Jerusalem: By the Greek and Latin Fathers, these four versicles are called lift up your hearts, from the introductory words. Cyril, Cyprian, Chrysostom, and Austin, expound this first versicle, as a seasonable admonition to dismiss all worldly thoughts, and to fix our minds upon the divine mercies, and the mysteries we are now celebrating. Cyril says, "The priest exclaims, lift up your hearts. At that tremendous hour," he adds, it is necessary to "elevate the heart to God, and not to depress it to earth, and earthly pursuits. The priest therefore directs, that all secular care and solicitude about domestic concerns be dismissed, and the heart devoted...

The rubric introducing the general Confession at the Holy Communion states that both the minister and the communicants are to be "kneeling humbly upon their knees". As John Shepherd notes - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - this is one of only three places in the 1662 rite in which the priest is directed to kneel, emphasising the solemn and corporate nature of the general Confession:  During the whole time of the Priest's officiating at the Communion he is directed to kneel only thrice, at this Confession, at the Collect before the prayer for Consecration, and at the act of receiving. In every other part of the office he is to stand. This was the practice of the ancient Church, and the attitude was probably borrowed from the service of the temple, where the legal sacrifices were offered by the Priest standing. Between the legal and evangelical sacrifice there is the same correspondence that exists between the sha...

Then shall this general Confession be made, in the name of all those that are minded to receive the holy Communion, by one of the Ministers: both he and all the people kneeling humbly upon their knees and saying - BCP 1662 Holy Communion, rubric before the General Confession. In his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd notes the significance of the above rubric produced by the 1662 revision: Till the Restoration the Rubric here stood thus: "Then shall this general confession be made in the name of all those that are minded to receive the Holy Communion, either by one of them, or else by one of the ministers, or by the priest himself, all kneeling humbly on their knees." Does it not hence appear that the confession was made by one only in the name of all? At the Savoy Conference, the Presbyterians requested, that it might be made by the minister only, but at the revision that followed, the Rubric was changed into i...

Having considered the Exhortation which 1662 directed to be read to "the Communicants ... conveniently placed for the receiving of the holy Sacrament", John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - turns to what he terms the "immediate Invitation": This Invitation consists of three parts; the qualifications required in those that are invited; the Invitation itself; and a direction to make their confession to Almighty God. In many ways, of course, this "immediate Invitation" summarises the teaching and call of the longer Exhortations. Shepherd, however, sees it as something greater than merely a summary. He roots it in the invitations to the Sacrament seen in the great liturgies of the East: Invitations similar to this are mentioned in the writings of the Fathers, and found in ancient Liturgies. Pseudo-Dionysius, describing the manner in which this sacred rite was administered, informs us, that...

When John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - turns to the reading of the Epistle and Gospel in the Communion Office, he not insignificantly notes that this practice is grounded in both ancient Jewish and Christian tradition: After one of the two Collects for the King, in which we prayed for the external prosperity of the Church, this Rubric directs, that the Collect for the day shall follow, which is commonly a prayer for internal grace; and that immediately after the Collect, the priest shall read the Epistle, the Gospel, and the Creed. Before the celebration of the Passover the Jews read the history of their deliverance from Egypt, and the voice of antiquity uniformly proclaims, that at the celebration of the Eucharist, the Christians have always read select portions from the New Testament. The practice is mentioned by Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, Chrysostom, Austin, Origen, Leo, and others, delivered Homilies, o...

They made no part of any ancient Liturgy, neither, if my information be correct, are they read in the Communion office of any of the reformed Churches, except our own: And in ours they were first inserted at the review of Edward's Liturgy in 1552. When John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - refers in this manner to the reading of the Commandments in the Communion Office, we might assume he is being critical of the provision. Those of us who are devotees of the Cranmerian Communion Office, however, have no need to fear: Shepherd offers a robust defence of this distinctive provision. He declares that "the order for the rehearsal of [the Commandments] here, requires neither vindication, nor apology": When the Commandments are read, we should remember that they are not the words of the minister, but of God himself, and we should hear them with the same humility, the same reverence, and the same determinati...

Having set before readers a choice between Laud or Keble in The Teaching of the Anglican Divines in the Time of King James I and King Charles I on the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1858), Henry Charles Groves - a clergyman of the Church of Ireland - turned to Pusey's reading of three rubrics in the Prayer Book Holy Communion rite. Groves firstly quotes Pusey on the rubric requiring remaining consecrated elements to "reverently" placed upon the Holy Table and covered with "a fair linen cloth" and the rubric directing that, after the Blessings, the consecrated elements are to be "reverently" consumed. According to Pusey, these rubrics demonstrated "that the Church of England believes an abiding objective Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the elements, apart from the act of reception".  Groves immediately declares that such an interpretation is not sustainable: the views here maintained are neither the meaning of the rubric, nor suc...

On this feast of Michaelmas, as we rejoice in the "wonderful order" uniting angels and mortals, our thoughts can turn to a particular focus for that union and communion, the holy Sacrament.  This has been the cause for rich reflection in classical Anglican sources, two of which we might especially note, Anthony Sparrow's  A Rationale on the Book of Common Prayer (1655) and Thomas Comber's A Companion to the Altar (1675). Both works would be reprinted on numerous occasions throughout the 'long 18th century', becoming staple sources of an influential sacramental piety. For both writers, it is the Sanctus and the Gloria in excelsis which give expression in the eucharistic liturgy to the "wonderful order" embracing the mortals and the angelic host.  As Sparrow says of the Sanctus : Here we do, as it were, invite the heavenly host to help bear a part in our thanks to make them full ... And in this hymn we hold communion with the Church triumphant. Comb...

When administering Holy Communion Order One (that is, the 1926/1662 rite) according the Church of Ireland Book of Common Prayer 2004 Order, I have almost always used the post-Communion Prayer of Thanksgiving ('Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee') rather than the Prayer of Oblation ('O Lord and heavenly Father, we thy humble servants'). It is the richness of the Prayer of Thanksgiving's description of partaking of the sacrament which I find particularly compelling, giving expression to a deep and joyful Reformed eucharistic theology.  Presiding at a recent Order One celebration, however, I was drawn to the Prayer of Oblation. Partly it was from a desire to ensure that its place in the rite was respected; partly it was an opportunity to revisit the Prayer of Oblation after a lengthy period of relying on the Prayer on Thanksgiving. Using the Prayer of Oblation that day, however, brought me to a new appreciation for this post-communion prayer, pri...