"Above all, at the Holy Communion let us not only seek blessings, but rise on the wings of worship to the throne of the eternal God. It is a thousand pities that our reformers put the Prayer of Humble Access where they did. No doubt it expresses the humiliation which must follow on the vision of God to which we are summoned in the Sanctus; but it cuts short the moment of exultation and brings us to the Act of Consecration in the mood of suppliants rather than in exultant adoration of our Holy Father, the Almighty and Everlasting God. But there the great words are; let us take care to mean them with profound intention and revel in their praise. Let us rise again to the sublimity of the Gloria in Excelsis. Most of our thanksgivings are for mercies bestowed on us; but here is a thanksgiving with no thought of ourselves at all: “We give thanks to thee for thy great glory.”
-- William Temple, 110th Archbishop of Canterbury, whose feast day is today, from Fellowship With God, chapter 5, "The Eternal God," 1920.
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