mind, body, or estate,' with a particular remembrance of 'those for whom our prayers are desired.' In the Collects, which were intended primarily for use at the Eucharist, we find petitions for help in 'our infirmities,' for defence from 'all adversities which may happen to the body,' for preservation 'both in body and soul,' and for readiness of 'body' to do the Divine will. In the Office for Holy Communion we may be glad to note even clearer traces of the Scriptural and primitive conception as to the place which the physical part of our nature is entitled to hold in the religion of the Incarnation.
When we say the prayer for the whole Church, we humbly beseech God 'to comfort and succour all those who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity.' In the Prayer of Humble Access there are petitions, first to be met with in the earliest form of the English service (1548), which sound like an echo from the already quoted Prayer-book of Serapion, 'that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His Body, and our souls washed through His most precious Blood.' Even more intentionally significant are the words of administration appointed to be addressed to every communicant, 'The Body of our Lord
