Communion (Eucharist) is one of the most important Sacraments of the Orthodox Church. The Sacrament of Communion allows the believer to gain eternal life for his soul and unite with God through eating His flesh and blood, presented in the form of bread and wine. Only in communion do we become truly Orthodox, for what defines us as such is not the wearing of a cross on the body and the baptism performed on us, but our life in Christ, His grace to us and His presence in us.
Vaccination against death
In the Soviet years, it was believed that there was no “soul” in a person - there was only a body and some psychological processes in it, and if they were thoroughly studied, then scientific materialism would finally triumph. But the vast majority of the planet’s population is still far from such theories and knows very well that a person consists not only of a body, but also of a spirit and soul. So Christians believe that we exist only in the totality of these components - after all, it is impossible to call either a cold corpse or the soul of a deceased person who has lost his body a living person. Death, as is obvious to everyone, kills us, deprives us of integrity, and the tragedy of mortality frightens people all the more because deep down in our souls everyone has a living feeling - we were created to never die . After all, if death were inherent in our nature, thoughts about the upcoming departure would not burden us, and death would be the natural end of our life.
But even while a person lives, he is often separated from other people and from God by a mass of obstacles, based on a lack of love and a reluctance to communicate with the world. You can argue about whether it is possible to hide from death and hatred during life, you can simply close your eyes to the problem - but it is already useless to argue about what will happen to us after death: no one has returned from there. Christians believe that after death, a person’s condition will be determined by how he lived his earthly life - and reflecting on possible bliss after death, one of the wise said that one cannot enter heaven alone. In other words, if a person lives selfishly and at the same time hopes to learn what love for God and people is, then most likely he will not succeed.
Christians call salvation the overcoming of the gap between man and God, the return of man to the state for which he was conceived - to the eternal happiness that only love can give, or, as they also say, to eternal life. And since the Source of all life in the world is our Creator and no one else, a person can only be saved by communing with this Source, uniting with Him. This is what communion means - in this Sacrament a person is united with God. Without such a “vaccination” of life, humanity would have no chance of recovering from death. But how is this possible?
Communion to the Sick
At the First Ecumenical Council, it was determined that a seriously ill person should not be deprived of communion. If a person is unable to receive communion in church, this can be easily resolved, because the church allows you to give communion to the sick at home. The priest is ready to come to the sick at any time, except for the time from the Cherubic Song to the end of the Liturgy. During any other service, the priest is obliged to stop the service for the sake of the sufferer and rush to him. At this time, psalms are read in the church for the edification of believers.
Patients are allowed to receive the Holy Mysteries without any preparation, prayer, or fasting. But they still need to confess their sins. Also, seriously ill patients are allowed to receive communion after eating.
Miracles often happen when seemingly incurable people rose to their feet after receiving communion. Clergymen often go to the hospital to support the seriously ill, take confession, and give them communion. But many refuse. Some are disgusted, others do not want to bring trouble to the ward. However, those who do not succumb to all doubts and superstitions can be granted miraculous healing.
Memento mori
The service during which the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Holy Communion is celebrated, is called the Divine Liturgy. The word “Liturgy” itself, translated from Greek, means “common cause” - which already indicates that this service, unlike others, can only be performed by Christians together, and in unanimity and peace with each other.
Death and hatred divide people, sin and time kill us one by one. Christ does the opposite: He just connects people, and not in a mechanical way, as in some kind of barracks, but connects them in His Body, where everyone is in his place and every organ is needed. The Church as a collection of Christians is the Body of Christ.
But what exactly makes a body a body? After all, the body is not a random collection of disparate members, but their organic unity. Christians receive this unity with each other and with God precisely in communion with Christ. How this happens is a mystery; the human mind is unable to understand it, so communion is logically called a Sacrament.
And communion became possible precisely because the Creator visibly entered the reality He created - as if an artist entered a picture that he himself painted. God became man in order for man to become god - this idea is found in many Church Fathers and perfectly expresses the very essence of Christianity. If we perceive Christ as a simple teacher of morality, then Christianity completely loses its meaning and turns into, albeit lofty, but useless for getting rid of death, moralizing. That is, in order for not only the words, but also the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth to become the path to salvation for us, it is necessary to recognize Christ as God, who suffered and was crucified for us.
As during the Last Supper, when the Savior instituted the Sacrament of Communion, so today in all Orthodox churches specially prepared and consecrated Bread and Wine are blessed and offered to God with the request that the Holy Spirit, as before, descend on these holy Gifts and made the Bread the Body of Christ, and the Wine His Blood. It is under the guise of Bread and Wine that Christians partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, and these are not “terms” or some pompous words; this is the same Body that was crucified on the Cross, and the same Blood that the Lord shed for us on Calvary. For us, who are made of flesh and blood, there is no other way to fully and truly unite with God and cannot exist. Prayer, good deeds, fulfillment of the commandments, the desire to improve in goodness - this is only the path to communion, a necessary condition, but not yet an end in itself. The goal, the meaning of Christianity is Christ Himself, participation in Him.
By the way, it is no coincidence that the Last Supper was celebrated by Christ immediately before the sufferings of the Cross - one is very closely connected with the other. The service during which the Sacrament occurs contains not only the remembrance of the entire life of Christ, but also a direct connection with His crucifixion. Christians believe that although the Sacrifice on Calvary was offered once, its fruits are enjoyed by every person who communes with Christ. This does not mean that the Sacrifice is repeated, because it has already been accomplished once, Christ has already been crucified. But worship brings timelessness, eternity into the earthly plane of our existence; it projects this Sacrifice onto every moment of our existence.
The important thing is that the communion of a person with God in the Sacrament of Communion is not accomplished “individually” at all: in the Sacrament of Communion all Christians are united with the One and the Same Christ - which means they become united with each other, even closer than brothers and sisters. And this is also how people unite with the Heavenly Church, that is, with all the already dead Christians who are tasting the fruits of Christ’s victory over death.
During the celebration of the Sacrament, the barrier between earth and heaven and life completely loses its meaning - after all, this border does not exist in Christ. This is the deepest spiritual reality, the very core of church life. Everything else - prayer, fulfilling the commandments, good deeds - is just a path, and communion is the result of the path.
Preparation for Holy Communion
One should properly prepare for the Sacrament of Holy Communion, namely:
• Prayer. Before communion, you need to pray more and more diligently. Do not miss a few days of prayer rule. By the way, the rule for Holy Communion is added to it. There is also a pious tradition of reading the canon for communion: the canon of repentance to the Lord, the canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, the canon to the Guardian Angel. On the eve of Communion, attend an evening service.
• Fasting. It must be not only carnal, but also spiritual. We need to reconcile with everyone with whom we were in disagreement, pray more, read the Word of God, refrain from watching entertainment programs and listening to secular music. Spouses need to give up physical affection. Strict fasting begins on the eve of Communion; from 12 o'clock at night you can neither eat nor drink. However, the confessor (priest) can establish an additional fast of 3-7 days. Such fasting is usually prescribed for beginners and those who have not observed one-day or multi-day fasts.
• Confession. It is necessary to confess your sins to a clergyman.
A right, not an obligation
From the very beginning of the history of the Church, when Christians did not yet have a coherent system of theology, public recognition, magnificent churches and beautiful iconostases, the Sacrament of Communion was the same in those days - because in order for it to be performed, it is necessary, in addition to the actual Bread and Wine, just two things.
Firstly, it is necessary for the priest to have apostolic succession, that is, for the covenant of Christ to be fulfilled, with which the Lord addressed His disciples: do this in remembrance of Me (Luke 22:19 ). Christ did not go out into the square and say, “Everyone who hears me, do this.” He said this only to his disciples, and from the very first days such an order was established in the Church that when a community of Christians gathered, the apostle or his successor, who received the grace of the priesthood from the apostle himself, performed the Liturgy - a divine service during which communion occurs. Such continuity is preserved in the Orthodox Church to this day - each bishop is supplied by already existing bishops, and so from the very beginning, from apostolic times and from the apostles of Christ themselves.
And secondly, there must be a community that participates in worship and communion. Previously, this participation in the course of the service itself was more significant (for example, members of the community themselves brought bread and wine), but now the community is represented mainly by the priest, clergy and choir. Of course, we must hope for the revival of strong parishes; but the Sacrament itself still does not suffer at all, because it is performed by Christ, and the priest is only a priest, he only co-serves God. The Lord Himself performs this Sacrament, He established it - and the priest during the service does not at all repeat the actions of Christ, does not reproduce, as in the movies, a historical event. It’s just that everything that God has done already exists in eternity, and every time in the Sacrament our ordinary time is connected with this eternity. This is the Kingdom of Heaven, which has come in power, according to the words of Christ (Mark 9:1).
But in no case can the Sacrament of Communion be understood magically - as a “vaccination” of a child against diseases, as some kind of obligatory rite, or as a dreary and difficult “duty” of a Christian. The opportunity to receive communion with Christ is a great and priceless gift, and if someone is not yet ready to accept it with reverence, fear and faith, then it is better not to rush, but to wait and be better prepared. The Apostle Paul even said: Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let man examine himself, and in this way let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, without considering the Body of the Lord. This is why many of you are weak and sick, and many are dying (1 Cor 11 :27-30). It is very dangerous to approach the sacrament without proper reasoning and examination of your conscience - this way you can achieve not life with Christ, but a completely opposite effect. It would even be more accurate to say that those who sincerely receive communion for the sake of life with Christ receive this life from Him. And for those who do not really strive for Christ, perhaps only the Lord Himself knows what they can achieve in this way.
The Necessity of Holy Communion
Communion is a necessary rite for the believer. A Christian who neglects Communion voluntarily turns away from Jesus. And thereby deprives himself of the possibility of eternal life. He who regularly receives communion, on the contrary, unites with God, strengthens in faith, and becomes a partaker of eternal life. From this we can conclude that for a churchgoer, communion is undoubtedly an important event in life.
Sometimes, after accepting the Holy Mysteries of Christ, even serious illnesses recede, willpower increases, and the spirit strengthens. It becomes easier for a believer to fight his passions. But as soon as you step away from the sacrament for a long time, everything in life begins to go awry. Ailments return, the soul begins to be tormented by seemingly retreating passions, irritability appears. And this is not a complete list. It follows that a believer, a churchgoer, tries to take communion at least once a month.
Does gratitude have boundaries?
The Sacrament of Communion is otherwise called the Sacrament of the Eucharist. "Eucharist" in Greek means "thanksgiving" . This indicates that the performance of the Sacrament presupposes a person’s love for God and gratitude to Him for all His gifts given to man - and, first of all, for the fact that He gave us Himself, completely, without reserve. Naturally, such gratitude is unthinkable without communion of the Holy Gifts - the Body and Blood of Christ, therefore the expressions “Sacrament of Communion” and “Sacrament of the Eucharist” are almost always interchangeable.
The Sacrament of Communion has several other names, reflecting its various aspects. And one of these names, very common, is the Eucharist, that is, translated from Greek - Thanksgiving. What does this mean? Christians simply believe that everything that is in our lives was given to man by God; everything “ours” actually belongs only to Him. Therefore, not some material sacrifices, but simple gratitude - this, perhaps, is the most important manifestation of a person’s love for God. In human communication, love is often mixed with many things - with the need for a person, with the need for his support, sometimes even some material things - care, maintenance. Of course, we love each other for this too, but the purest form of love is still thanksgiving. Gratitude is perhaps one of the most selfless and pure human feelings.
During the service, a prayer of sincere gratitude to God for the entire created world and care for it on behalf of the entire community is solemnly pronounced by the priest in the altar. And only after this thanksgiving does he ask that the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. This is how the fall of mankind is healed in humility - through gratitude and love for God.
It can be argued that God is self-sufficient and can do without our praise. But gratitude to God is needed by the person himself - after all, when a person says at least “thank you” to God, then these are always far from just words or some kind of forced manifestation of etiquette - they say, God did something for you, and you should thank Him, be kind On the contrary, every such word to God, spoken sincerely, seems to permeate our entire existence, changing something in the innermost depths of the soul. Therefore, when we thank God, we thereby do a good deed for ourselves, and in Heaven there is joy from this (see Luke 15:10 ), because God is our Father, and He loves us, this is natural.
The peculiarity of selfless Divine love is that God knows perfectly well that we cannot give Him anything even remotely equal or comparable to what He did for us. As King David says to God in the Bible, “You don’t need my blessings” (Ps. 15 :2). God simply wants us to be ourselves—the way He intended us to be.
And the first step towards becoming who God wants us to be is being honest with ourselves. The beginning of such honesty is, for example, that a person can admit to himself that he still goes to church not because he loves God so much, but because he needs something from God. If you tell yourself honestly at least this, a lot in life can already change.
Natural miracle
In the language of the New Testament (i.e., Greek), the word “Church” sounds like “ekklesia”, which means “assembly, convocation” . In other words, the concept of “church” does not express some kind of frozen administrative structure, but a constant action - the coming of people to God, gathering them together for a common life and salvation.
Most often, in practice, Christianity is understood this way: a person lives everyday life, “like everyone else,” and on some day plans to attend church. Before this, he begins to tensely abstain from something, prepares, prays, then comes to confession, throws off the burden of worldly life, joins the high, leaves the temple... and the process begins again. But such Christian life is supposedly divided into two parts: temple life and non-temple life. Temple life is usually considered the highest, they consider themselves obligated to prepare for it, but profane, worldly life - it simply exists, there is no escape from it; as they say, “life takes its toll.”
This is completely wrong. Saint Theophan the Recluse writes that the norm of life for a Christian is this: what you are during the Sacrament, so you should be in everyday life. Of course, if these words are placed in the ideology of “going to church” described above, you can simply get scared - after all, this would seem to mean constantly living in some kind of terrible psychological tension? And so - there is at least some kind of “sinusoid”, tension-relaxation, akin to some kind of sports exercises... A person tenses up - makes a jump - rests, and so on all the time. But in fact, the Christian life should flow smoothly . In no case does this mean that participation in the Sacrament of Communion should be belittled - on the contrary, life should be elevated to it.
Sometimes they try to do this in a disciplinary way - by not eating certain foods, by intensively reading the prayer book, etc., but mainly we need to act differently, because the essence is different - Christ gives us the gift of life, which we must bring to the world. For example, in order to participate in pagan cults, some kind of special sacred preparation was needed. But Christ seems to turn everything on its head: he does not require any such special preparation - only Bread and Wine, elementary, natural things, eat and drink. You don’t need to jump over a fire, you don’t need to perform any extraordinary “one-time” rituals on yourself. You just need to get hungry, thirst for God, and this is one of the most natural things in the world. Communion becomes part of a series of everyday activities, but is not reduced to them - on the contrary, thereby everyday life itself rises to the sky.
A Christian must take communion often, and the church canons say that if we do not take communion at least once every three weeks, then we cut ourselves off from the Church. Communion is precisely the daily bread that we vitally need, and the living water without which we will perish. As the Lord Himself said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink (John 7:37).
After receiving the Holy Gifts
The day when the Sacrament of Communion is performed is, of course, a significant time for every believer. And it needs to be celebrated in a special way, as a great holiday of soul and spirit. During the Sacrament, the person receiving communion receives the Grace of God, which should be guarded with trepidation and try not to sin. If possible, it is better to abstain from worldly affairs and spend the day in peace, quiet and prayer. Pay attention to the spiritual side of your life, pray, read the Word of God. These prayers after communion are very meaningful - they are joyful and energetic. They are also capable of increasing gratitude to the Lord and instilling in the person praying a desire to receive communion more often. It is not customary to kneel after communion in church. Exceptions are veneration before the Shroud and kneeling prayers on the day of the Holy Trinity. There is an unfounded argument that, supposedly, after Communion it is forbidden to venerate icons and kiss. However, the clergy themselves, after receiving the Holy Mysteries, are blessed by the bishop, kissing their hand.
Grow your soul like a flower
The Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread and, having given thanks, broke it and said: Take, eat, this is My Body, broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. He also took the cup after supper, and said: This cup is the new covenant in My Blood; Do this whenever you drink, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.
1st Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23-26
If a person wants to take communion, he often simply does not know where to start. In fact, everything is simple: when preparing for communion, the first and most important condition is the desire to receive communion, the thirst for God, that is, the impossibility of life without Christ. A living feeling that in the Sacrament we are united with Him - and an extreme desire for such a union. This is not just a feeling, it is a constant state of the soul, when it feels insufficient without Christ, and only with Him and in Him does it find tranquility, joy, peace, and the very meaning of its existence. If there is none of this in the soul - or, as often happens, there is, but to a weak, almost disappearing degree - then the first and main condition for preparing for communion will be the creation in oneself, at least to a small extent, of this state of mind, this desire. This is where abstinence, prayer, examination of conscience and many other methods from which a person must choose the most effective for himself will be useful. You definitely need to “stir up” your soul in order to receive communion not because of some collateral reasons or “tradition,” but because of a living feeling of thirst for God - and to maintain this feeling after communion.
The second is an examination of conscience, reconciliation with God. There are things in our lives that are simply incompatible with the Eucharist, with our participation in this Sacrament. This, for example, is a prodigal life, a cruel or indifferent attitude towards people, and similar sins. The test of conscience is that in the light of the Gospel we not only repent of what we recognize as incompatible with communion with Christ, but also resolutely leave it - or, in any case, begin to make efforts so as not to lead a double life: not participate in the main Sacrament of the Church, while living in sin. It is for the testing of conscience and reconciliation with God that it is customary to confess before communion.
Finally, the third is reconciliation with people . You cannot approach the Chalice holding a grudge against anyone. Of course, in life there are a variety of situations over which we sometimes have no control, but - as the Apostle says - if possible on your part, be at peace with all people (Rom 12:18 ). That is, we, for our part, must make every effort for reconciliation; and it’s even better not to bring things to a situation in which you need to reconcile, but to behave evenly and peacefully with everyone.
In general, in order to determine the possibility or impossibility of communion, a person has a conscience. The priest with whom he will confess will tell him some subtleties, but everything is determined by one thing, in fact - does a person want to be with Christ, does he want to live as Christ commands? If there is such a desire, even to a small degree, then the person is worthy, but if there is no such desire, then it is not clear why he needs to receive communion at all.
Some cautiously say that a person is never worthy, but this does not mean that he can never receive communion and be with God. The Lord did not distribute people according to merit or unworthiness - He freely entered the house of the tax collector Zacchaeus, and ate and talked with sinners, tax collectors and fornicators, although the Pharisees told Him that they were “unworthy.” So if a person really tries to live like a Christian, then he is worthy of communion with Christ, and if not, then he is not worthy. The priest at confession should draw a conclusion about a person’s efforts on the path of Christian life and bless (or not bless) communion in the near future.
Of course, non-members of the Church, that is, unbaptized people, cannot receive communion. Baptism is a Sacrament that allows you to enter the Church, and this is why you need to enter it in order to be able to receive communion. Without communion, baptism is almost like a train ticket from which a person gets off somewhere at a stop. Yes, you can still catch up and sit back in your seat - fortunately you have a ticket. But it’s better to hurry up while the train is still on the way...
The Church also has disciplinary requirements regarding preparation for communion: fasting, attending services, reading prayers (the so-called “Rules for Holy Communion”, it can be found in any church shop) and certain canons. But these are only church rules, and not the dogmas of the Church at all, and they are not absolute. The main thing is that the soul internally corresponds to the Sacrament, to be, as it were, “one spirit” with the Sacrament (even if this correspondence is imperfect, incomplete, or even still exists only in the form of desire). A certain, traditionally established church discipline should help this.
And since all people are different, everyone should have their own disciplinary training. Here everyone has their own measure - one for a blind old man, another for a small child (who, for example, under seven years old does not need to confess at all), and a completely different one for a healthy young man. The priest will also tell you this during confession. What the Church offers is not a literal obligation, but a kind of average measure, traditionally and historically established. We need to look at the situation as a whole: if we definitely need to pray more concentratedly before communion, impose some kind of fast on ourselves - so we put these needs into a rule: whoever can - observes everything completely, who can - more, and who can't - less, without any embarrassment. In the first place is internal maturation, the maturation of the soul; It is for this reason that external efforts are made, and not in order to subtract to the letter what is required. In general, all external forms in the Church must be animated and filled with internal prayerful meaning, otherwise the Sacraments and the Church will turn into a painful and difficult formality, and we will replace living life with God with external rules.
