On Prayers after Communion
18 March 1990
After the Liturgy there should be always the reading of the Prayers of thanksgiving for Communion, so that those who have had communion can thank the Lord. Everyone who comes to Communion does it privately; but Communion is not only a private event; it is a moment when we are united not only to Christ, to God, but also, in a new way to one another.
And so it was decided at our last General Meeting that the Prayer of thanksgiving will be read at the end of the Liturgy. Father Sergius (?) our deacon, will read those prayers in the middle of the church before the Cross of our Lord. And I would like you, as you come to venerate the Cross to be quiet, and to allow those who will gather around him to listen with all their heart, all their mind and bring forward their gratitude. But this quietness which I ask for is not only destined to make it possible for them (to pray this way (?): how grateful we should be as a living body of people, not as a collection of individuals, but b o d y of brothers and sisters, that some of us are unites (?) in this mysterious way today with the Lord; the gratitude which they bring should be also our gratitude. Let us therefore either take part together with them in these prayers, or if we come to the Gross and go our way t h a n k God that many have already received Communion today, and are deeper than before at one with the Lord.