Communion Prayers

We have the habit in our Church of saying the Preparation Prayers for Holy Communion during our cell rule, and the Thanksgiving Prayers are said at the end of the Liturgy. But I've often found that taking those prayers and spreading them out over the days after Communion is a good way to start reminding yourself that gratitude for receiving the Holy Gifts is not just momentary. It doesn't just happen in that instant while you can still taste Them in your throat but is to extend and fill the days ahead. So, of those collection of prayers, we can read one in our cells that night, and another in the morning when we get up, continuing to give thanks for what He has done for us. It is not a momentary thing but continues on.
Likewise with the Preparatory Prayers: not all of them have to be read the night before. If you know you're going to receive next weekend, in the days leading up to that, you can begin your preparation ahead of time, with a sense of pending gratitude, to be grateful for what is about to happen. If we do that regularly then the whole week becomes a continuation of giving thanks for what we have received and giving thanks for what we are about to receive (instead of being grateful and then going about our way for a while, then getting ready again, and repeating that cycle). Extending the preparation and the giving of thanks, through these prayers, extends the gratitude into the whole of the week. So with the Eucharist we have a practical way to begin cultivating gratitude.

~ Bishop Irenei,  excerpted from an impromptu talk on cultivating gratitude.