Before the Altar and After: A New Prayer Book for Holy Communion
Rev. Dr. John J. Bombaro provides prayers of preparation and thanksgiving for every week of the historic One Year Lectionary and for the church's feasts as well.
PRE-ORDERS WILL BEGIN SHIPPING AFTER JULY 30, 2026
Binding: Hardcover, Softcover, Kindle (Leatherbound pending)
Pages: 102
Publisher: St. John the Baptist Press and Memento with Ad Crucem Books
Published: July 31, 2026
Language: English (American) and with some Latin
Dimensions: 5x8 inches
Weight: 2.2 lbs
Options:
Amazon, $26 (hardcover - pending)
Amazon, $17 (softcover - pending)
Ad Crucem, $34 (hardcover)
Ad Crucem, $23 (softcover)
The Divine Service reaches its apex at the Altar, where the celebrant offers the Anaphora, the Eucharistic Prayer that the Western church has also called the Great Thanksgiving, which carries the entire church family into communion with Jesus Christ. That prayer belongs to the whole congregation, and it constitutes the corporate church’s preparation for Holy Communion, a preparation embedded in the liturgy itself and renewed every Lord’s Day.
However, the church’s corporate preparation has never exhausted the communicant’s own devotion, because historic Christian piety has always afforded each Christian critical moments of personal prayer surrounding the Sacrament: repentant prayers of preparation before communing, known in the tradition as the praeparatio ad Communionem, and joyful prayers of thanksgiving after communing, the gratiarum actio post Communionem. These twin disciplines have been, and ever will be, vital to Christian spirituality, constituting an indispensable act of devotion to our manifest Lord Jesus, who comes to us at the Altar as the Bread of Life, His body true food and His blood true drink.
The cover, designed by Lutheran artist Sam Novak, to whom we owe warm thanks, sets the title in gold against a black field within a great central diamond, framed by an ornamental border woven with ichthys and cross motifs in the manner of a nineteenth-century devotional binding. A radiant cross crowns the composition, while four corner medallions carry the sacramental program: a chalice and host, praying hands, and paired roundels bearing the Verba themselves, "This is My Body" and "This is My Blood." The design announces the book's purpose before a page is turned, and it will sit as handsomely on an altar rail as on a nightstand.
Prex Eucharistica: Prayers of Preparation and Thanksgiving for Holy Communion, by Rev. Dr. John J. Bombaro, now places that discipline back in the communicant’s hands. The volume supplies prayers derived from the lectionary texts for each week of the Church Calendar following the historic One Year Lectionary, moving through the Time of Christmas (Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany), the Time of Easter (Lent, Holy Week, Easter), and the Time of the Church (Trinity), together with the feasts and festivals observed by the church catholic. Consequently, the communicant’s private preparation is bound to the very texts the congregation will hear read and preached, so that personal devotion and corporate worship converge on the same Word.
"Son of David and Eternal Son of God, just as You entered Jerusalem on a beast of burden to bring God's peace, You now deign to enter me through the simple forms of bread and wine."
The prayers of preparation proceed from the proper disposition for communing, which is repentance and faith. Each preparatory prayer facilitates the consecration of oneself to Christ and to the self-giving benefits He bestows at the Altar, “the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation,” and this act of self-examination and purification of intent heightens the communicant’s acknowledgment of, and anticipation for, divine grace, connecting the one who prays directly to the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and to His glorious resurrection.
The prayers that follow reception answer to the other half of the discipline. After receiving the Eucharist, the Christian physically and spiritually harbors the presence of Christ, and the prayers after Communion become an intimate dialogue of thanksgiving, which is fitting, since Eucharist literally means thanksgiving. These prayers ask that the Sacrament transform the communicant, supplying the grace, strength, and virtues needed to live out the Christian life in the week to come.
Prayed in Christian faith, Prex Eucharistica will bind communicants of all ages to their visible congregation and to the invisible communion of saints, intensifying the mystical encounter with our ever-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. The book runs to 102 pages in a 5x8-inch format sized for the pew rack, the coat pocket, and the bedside table, and it is available in hardcover, softcover, and Kindle editions, with a leather-bound edition pending.
About John Bombaro
Rev. John J. Bombaro is Senior Pastor of St. James Lutheran Church & School, Lafayette, IN.
He holds the rank of Commander in the Navy Reserves as an LCMS chaplain. He did undergraduate studies at Rutgers University and Columbia International University, and continued at the University of Edinburgh (MTh), Concordia Theological Seminary (MDiv), Westfield House, Cambridge (DTM), and King’s College London (PhD). He has been a faculty member at Dickinson College, Messiah College, University of San Diego, Luther Academy (Rīga), and Charles University (Prague).
Dr. Bombaro planted St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church on Kaua’i and Blessed Sacrament Lutheran Church in Hayden, Idaho. From 2007-2018, he was Senior Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, San Diego. The Bombaro family were missionaries in Europe with the Office of International Mission from 2020-2024. He is widely published and a frequent contributor to Issues, Etc. He and his wife, Melinda, have four children and love Penn State football and the National Parks.