Part III: Receiving the Eucharist & Praying with Aquinas

Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas For Right Ordering: For After Receiving Communion

"Generously Grant to me, O Lord my God, Intelligence in knowing you, Diligence in seeking you, Wisdom in finding you, Conduct pleasing to you, Perseverance in trustingly awaiting you, And Trust in finally embracing you.

For Part One which deals with "Generously Grant to me O Lord my God" click here.

For Part Two which deals with "Intelligence in knowing You, Diligence in seeking You, Wisdom in finding You" click here.

For Part Four which deals with "And Trust in finally embracing You" click here.
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Conduct pleasing to you

I want to be a good person, and being intelligent, diligent and wise helps me to know and want the right things. But how good is it for me to know the right thing to do and not do it? How can I be a fully participating member of the Body of Christ when I fail to act as I know I should?

Acting the way God wants me to act is a way to, ‘put my money where my mouth is.’ 

How often do I think I know how I ought to act, but choose to act another way because that way is easier? How good am I at examining my conduct after the fact to reevaluate my actions? How well do I consider how my actions affect other people?

Asking these questions help to develop my conscience. Each person’s sense of right and wrong is a privileged thing, and each person has a responsibility to develop their sense of right and wrong to be more and more accurate. 

When I receive Jesus in the Eucharist I encounter Jesus’ conduct towards me - gently but firmly inviting me to become more a part of His Body. When I am mindful of this, I ask him to transform all of my conduct so that it better reflects Him. I also ask Him to transform my conscience to be like His.

In these prayers, I pray fervently that I may one day say wholeheartedly with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
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Perseverance in trustingly awaiting you

​Knowing and willing is hard. Doing is harder. Doing every day is the hardest. Perseverance is all about knowing, willing and doing every day even when - especially when - the doing is hard.

What does this prayer ask for the grace to persevere in? Waiting with trust for the good promised to us: waiting for God.

Some days, it’s easier to wait for God - some days it’s easy to feel thankful for my life and the things happening in it. But some days bring more hardship, and it’s harder on those days. If I’ve had a hard month or a hard year, that can make it even harder to wait in trust that God will make everything right.

What are the things in my life that tire me out or make me sad? What things in my life make it hard to trust that everything will be okay? 

This, to me, is where the graces of the Eucharist can be seen in a new light. In easier times, it’s easier to say we believe God is in our lives. Then, it’s easier to trust that He’ll walk with us and everything will be okay. But hardship is experienced by everyone, and in times of hardship, it can be harder to feel Him.

If we trust the word left us by Christ, that He is truly present in the Eucharist, than we can trust in a radical way that He is present to us, even if we can’t feel him.

In the Eucharist, we can do more than know He is present: we can consume Him, and draw Him into our very selves. When I do this, I say, ‘I trust you Lord, help me trust you more.’ Jesus in the Eucharist sustains me, and has something beyond imagination in store for me, if only I hold on, and trust in Him.

The same is true for every person.

Written by Br. James Pierce, Cavanaugh, OP


Simplified Prayer:
Grant me O Lord,
A mind to know You
A heart to seek You
Wisdom to find You
Conduct pleasing to You
Perseverence in searching for You,
And a hope of finally embracing You.

Poetic Prayer:
Gen’rously Grant oh lord Jesu’:

Intelligence in knowing you, 
And Diligence in seeking you, 
And Wisdom, too, in finding you. 

Grant I may do what pleases you,
Persever’ in those doings too,
Mind, heart and wisdom born anew.

Grant steadfast waiting, trusting you.
Grant trust itself of truest true:
A trust that trusts completely you,

And ‘waits your full embrace, Jesu’.