Prayer before receiving the Eucharist – Saint John of Damascus
I stand before the doors of your holy temple,
and yet I do not turn away from my wicked thoughts.
But you, O Christ God, who justified the publican,
who had compassion on the Canaanite woman
and opened paradise to the thief,
open to me the bowels of your mercy,
and receive me as I draw near to you and touch you,
like the sinful woman and the woman with the issue of blood.
For the latter, touching the hem of your garment,
immediately obtained healing;
the former, clasping your most holy feet,
was loosed from the bond of her sins.
And I, wretched one, daring to receive your whole body,
let me not be consumed, but receive me, O God,
like them, and enlighten my spiritual senses,
burning away my faults,
through the intercession of her who gave birth to you without seed
and the heavenly powers;
for you are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.
The prayer before receiving the Eucharist attributed to Saint John of Damascus represents one of the peaks of Eastern liturgical and spiritual literature, deeply rooted in the patristic tradition. Saint John of Damascus, who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries, was one of the greatest theologians of the Byzantine Church, as well as a distinguished defender of the veneration of sacred images during the iconoclast crisis. A Doctor of the Church, his magnum opus, “The Fount of Knowledge,” includes fundamental treatises on the Eucharist, seen not as a mere symbol, but as the true body and blood of Christ through the transubstantiation (or transmutation) operated by the Holy Spirit.
From a theological and historical perspective, this prayer is set within the context of the immediate preparation for the Sacrament of the Altar, a moment which in the Byzantine Church, and by extension in the Roman Rite Catholic Church that has embraced its spiritual richness, has always been surrounded by a profound sense of reverential awe and an acute sense of one’s own unworthiness before the holiness of God. The text draws powerfully from emblematic female biblical figures: the anonymous sinner in the Gospel of Luke, the woman with the issue of blood, and the Canaanite woman. These figures are not invoked to emphasize condemnation, but to highlight the boundless mercy of Christ, who never rejects those who approach Him with contrite faith, even in the midst of their own spiritual misery.
A fascinating aspect of this prayer lies in the Christological and existential paradox it expresses: the believer acknowledges being a sinner and “wretched,” aware that receiving the “whole body” of Christ could paradoxically burn them due to the consuming fire of divinity. Yet, just like the sinner who kissed Jesus’ feet and the woman with the issue of blood who touched His garment, the one praying dares to draw near. The final mention of the Theotokos (the Mother of God) and the celestial powers places the Eucharistic act not as an isolated event, but as a mystical participation in the heavenly liturgy, where earth unites with heaven in the eternal praise of God, blessed forever.
