When it is said
It is one of the prayers Orthodox Christians read to prepare for Holy Communion. The Greek prayer book has them said on the morning of Communion, after the usual morning service.
The evening before, a canon is said after Compline, the late-evening service. A canon is a long hymn in several parts.
In the Greek book it is the second of 10 prayers, straight after another prayer credited to St Basil.
Where it comes from
Author doubtful
Did St Basil write it?
Today’s Greek and Russian prayer books both give it to St Basil the Great, who died in AD 379. Its oldest known copies are Greek manuscripts of the 1000s, among them a book of hours now in Paris. But Fr Mikhail Zheltov, who studies the history of the services, lists it under two names: St John Chrysostom and St Basil.
Fr Mikhail Zheltov, The forming of the core of the Order for Holy Communion (in Russian)
Before there was a set order
In the 1000s and 1100s, the prayers before Communion had no fixed place yet. A copyist wrote out one, two or three of them, and the choice changed from book to book. So writes Fr Zheltov. This prayer was already among them.
Fr Mikhail Zheltov, The forming of the core of the Order for Holy Communion (in Russian)
What the words mean
Paul’s warning, said of oneself
The prayer opens with St Paul’s warning to the church in Corinth: whoever eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. Here the one praying owns that warning. Then the prayer turns to Jesus’s own promise: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
1 Corinthians 11:29 and John 6:56
The Scripture in it
Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Οἶδα, Κύριε, ὅτι ἀναξίως μεταλαμβάνω τοῦ ἀχράντου Σου Σώματος καὶ τοῦ τιμίου Σου Αἵματος καὶ ἔνοχός εἰμι καὶ κρῖμα ἐμαυτῷ ἐσθίω καὶ πίνω, μὴ διακρίνων τὸ Σῶμα καὶ τὸ Αἷμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ Θεοῦ μου·
ἀλλὰ τοῖς οἰκτιρμοῖς Σου θαῤῥῶν, προσέρχομαί Σοι τῷ εἰπόντι. Ὁ τρώγων Μου τὴν Σάρκα καὶ πίνων Μου τὸ Αἷμα ἐν Ἐμοὶ μένει, κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ.
Σπλαγχνίσθητι οὖν, Κύριε, καὶ μὴ παραδειγματίσῃς με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν, ἀλλὰ ποίησον μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ κατὰ τὸ ἔλεός Σου·
καὶ γενέσθω μοι τὰ ἅγια ταῦτα εἰς ἴασιν καὶ κάθαρσιν καὶ φωτισμὸν καὶ φυλακτήριον καὶ σωτηρίαν καὶ ἁγιασμὸν ψυχῆς τε καὶ σώματος·
εἰς ἀποτροπὴν πάσης φαντασίας καὶ πονηρᾶς πράξεως καὶ ἐνεργείας διαβολικῆς, κατὰ διάνοιαν τῆς ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου ἐνεργουμένης·
εἰς παῤῥησίαν καὶ ἀγάπην τὴν πρὸς Σέ· εἰς διόρθωσιν βίου καὶ ἀσφάλειαν· εἰς αὔξησιν ἀρετῆς καὶ τελειότητος· εἰς πλήρωσιν ἐντολῶν· εἰς Πνεύματος Ἁγίου κοινωνίαν·
εἰς ἐφόδιον ζωῆς αἰωνίου καὶ εἰς ἀπολογίαν εὐπρόσδεκτον, τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ φοβεροῦ βήματός Σου· μὴ εἰς κρῖμα ἢ εἰς κατάκριμα.