The Prayer of Humble Access

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness,
but in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy
so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy:
Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,
so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood,
that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,
and our souls washed through his most precious blood,
and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

This wonderful prayer by Thomas Cranmer which we find in the heart of the service of Holy Communion from the time of the reformation, turns the the experience of the Canaanite woman and makes it our own. We, like her, knowing that we are complete outsiders but are drawing near anyway for the Bread of life - knowing also that His nature is always to have mercy.