By Agapios Landos, 17th century Greek writer and monk
Lord and Master Jesus Christ, God most merciful and most compassionate, Physician of our souls and bodies, Crucified and bestowed upon us these immaculate Mysteries of Your Body and Blood, in which You truly abide. Today I pray with fear and trembling before this awesome and sacred Table, that I may partake of Your Divine Body. But I am timid and afraid, lest I come unprepared and unreformed, lest I irritate and provoke to indignation the Almighty Lord, before whom all intelligent Powers and all creation tremble, and lest I become subject to the most grievous torment. How can I, a worthless worm, an unclean vessel, a despicable thing, a worker of iniquity, a child of the devil in deeds, an heir to hell, a despiser of the Divine commandments, and, to put it simply, a most unworthy creature, unpartakable in any good, a host to every impurity—how can I dare to receive the Almighty God of all? How can the Humble One unite with the haughty? The Meek One with the angry? The Brightest Light with the darkened? The All-Holy and Undefiled One with the impure and burdened with sin? The angels tremble, and all the elements tremble. The holiest of all men did not dare to touch Your immaculate head with His hand and confessed that he was unworthy even to untie the strap of Your sandal. The chief of the apostles said to You: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. The faithful and reverent centurion confessed that he was unworthy for You to enter under the roof of his house. How can I, weighed down by sins, dare to receive You into my home? If no one ate the shewbread, which was only a shadow and a metaphor for this Bread—only the pure and undefiled—how can I, guilty and utterly tainted with abomination, dare to partake? If it was a great transgression to approach the Ark of the Covenant, which was only a prototype of the Bread, and for this reason the priest Zan was punished with sudden death, how can I, the unworthy one, not fear, in receiving You, the God of all, that I might suffer a more grievous torment? The Bethshamites, simply because they looked on irreverently, were afflicted with a terrible disease, so that fifty thousand died. O, the astounding narrative, which makes every heart tremble! Those unfortunates didn't despise the Ark, didn't revile it, but joyfully accepted it. Yet, just for their shameless thoughts, so many died! Where was it ever heard of You, merciful and most compassionate, inflicting such torment for so minor a transgression?
O All-Merciful Lord, how much more worthy is this Sacrament than the Ark! How can I not be afraid, receiving the God of majesty? I tremble, wretched one, and am beside myself, when I consider the heights of the Kingdom and the multitude of my sins, how I have squandered all that is flesh on various iniquities. I have never refrained from the will of my flesh and have not kept a single commandment. I have defiled, corrupted, and rendered useless every sense and every member of mine, becoming the devil's workshop. I have grieved Your philanthropic innards with deeds and words, in mind and thought. I am unworthy to enter Your temple, to behold Your holy image. I am unworthy of the title of Christian. I unworthily walk the face of Your land. I unworthily gaze upon the light of Your sun. I unworthily breathe Your air. I fear to enter Your bridal chamber, lest I be bound hand and foot, lest Your angels cast me into utter darkness as one without a wedding garment. How dare I, Lord of Angels, receive You into my defiled body, which has become a den of thieves, a dwelling place for snakes and basilisks? How will You enter my soul, which has become a concubine for demons? How will You rest in my heart, which has become a haven for every frivolous deed, impurity, and shame? How will You, who know no defilement, pass through my filthy and vile lips? There is no undefiled part of my soul, therefore I am ashamed to address You. But though the multitude of my sins terrify me and make me tremble, only the abyss of Your mercy and the sea of Your compassion comfort me. Your unspeakable goodness gives me hope for boldness.
I recall those sweetest words, more pleasant than ambrosia and nectar, which You spoke when You were bodily in this world: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And again: It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If, O Compassionate One, You have come not to call the righteous but sinners, and to give rest to those who have labored much and are heavily burdened, then accept me also, the unworthy one. Comfort me who sorrows, enlighten the blind, revive the dead, enrich the beggar, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, and heal the infirm. Do not disdain my abscesses, O Lord, for I am bruised and wounded by sins. And it will be a wonder and a glory of Your grace upon me, that You did not disdain one so filthy and vile, but covered my iniquity with Your generosity. I have sinned more than the harlot, I have lived more than the prodigal son, and I have committed more iniquities than the publican. But just as You did not disdain their tears and did not disdain their iniquities, being generous and merciful, so accept me, the unworthy one, and forgive him who has sinned against You more and grieved more. I do not have enough tears to wash Your revered and sacred feet; but the immaculate and precious Blood, shed by You on the Cross out of love for us, is sufficient to wash away all the sins of the world. Freely save me, the condemned one. Let not this self-confidence be an additional sin for me. I come not as one who despises You, but so that, deprived of You, I will not be ensnared by the mental wolf. Yea, sweetest Lord Jesus, I implore Your goodness, that Holy Communion may be for me a betrothal and a pledge of Your eternal Kingdom! And grant me the grace to walk this narrow and sorrowful path in this life, that through temporary suffering I may attain eternal bliss. May I sing and glorify You, with Your beginningless Father and the All-Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Agapit_Land/greshnikov-spasenie/2_11