Seeking Forgiveness and Charity Before Communion

Grant forgiveness, O God, for all acts of malice and uncharitableness, blindness and hardness of heart. Give us the spirit of true charity which alone is true wisdom, and grant that we may come to this sacrament of holy com- munion in charity with each other and with all; determined henceforth to feel for each other and with each other; to put ourselves in our neighbors’ places; to see with their eyes, and feel with their hearts; to make allowances for their mistakes and failings; to give and forgive, even as thou dost give and forgive, that so we may indeed be thy children, O heavenly Father, whose name is Love, and indeed discern the Lord’s body—that it is a body of union and sympathy, of mutual trust and help and affection, and once again, with all contrition and humility, in spirit and in truth, claim and obtain our share in the body and the blood, in the spirit and in the mind, of him who sacrificed himself for a rebellious world. Amen.