My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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HOLY COMMUNION IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Holy Eucharist is the Mystery (Sacrament) in which the bread and wine of offering are changed by the Holy Spirit into the true Body and true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then the believers receive Communion of them for a most intimate union with Christ and eternal life. This Sacrament is composed, thus, of two separate moments: (1) the changing or transformation of the bread and wine into the Holy Body and Precious Blood of the Lord, and (2) the Communion of these Holy Gifts. It is called "the Eucharist," "the Lord's Supper," "the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ." The Body and Blood of Christ in this Mystery are called the "Bread of heaven and the Cup of life" or the "Cup of salvation"; they are called the "Holy Mysteries," "the Bloodless Sacrifice." The Holy Eucharist is the greatest Christian Mystery (Sacrament).
The Savior's Words before the Establishment of the Mystery
Before the first performance of this Mystery at the Mystical Supper (the Last Supper), Christ promised it in His conversation concerning the Bread of Life on the occasion of the feeding of the five thousand men with five loaves. The Lord taught, "I am the living Bread which came down from heaven: If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever; and the Bread which I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51). The Jews evidently understood the words of Christ literally. They began to say to each other, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" (John 6:52). And the Lord did not tell the Jews that they had understood Him incorrectly, but only with greater force and clarity He continued to speak with the same meaning: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him" (John 6:53-56).
The Changing of the Bread and Wine in the Mystery of the Eucharist
In the Mystery (Sacrament) of the Divine Eucharist, at the time when the priest, invoking the Holy Spirit upon the offered Gifts, blessed them with the prayer to God the Father: "Make this bread the Precious Body of Thy Christ; and that which is in this cup, the Precious Blood of Thy Christ; changing them by Thy Holy Spirit" --the bread and wine actually are changed into the Body and Blood by the coming down of the Holy Spirit. (This moment of the Invocation of the Holy Spirit is called epiclesis. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes: "According to Orthodox theology, the act of consecration is not complete until the epiclesis.) After this moment, although our eyes see bread and wine on the Holy Table, in their very essence, invisibly for sensual eyes, this is the true Body and true Blood of the Lord Jesus, only under the "forms" of bread and wine.
This Truth is expressed n the "Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs" in the following words: "We believe that in this Sacred rite our Lord Jesus Christ is present not symbolically (typikos), not figuratively (eikonikos), not by an abundance of grace, as in the other Mysteries (Sacraments), not by a simple descent, as certain Fathers say about Baptism, and not through a 'penetration' of the bread, so that the Divinity of the Logos/Word should 'enter' into the bread offered for the Eucharist, as the followers of Luther (Protestants) explain it rather awkwardly and unworthily--but truly and actually, so that after the sanctification of the bread and wine, the bread is changed, converted, transformed, into the actual true Body of the Lord...the wine is changed into the actual true Blood of the Lord, which at the time of His suffering on the Cross was shed for the life of the world. Yet again, we believe that after the sanctification of the bread and wine there remains no longer the bread and wine themselves, but the very Body and Blood of the Lord, under the appearance and form of bread and wine" (par. 17). (Source: The Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky)
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As you can see from our Orthodox Theology, the Holy Gifts are Sacred, in that they have become imbued with the fullness of God's presence and Grace, and they are divine (not human) gifts, "for every good and perfect Gift is from above, coming from (Thee) the Father of lights" (Prayer behind the Amvon in the Divine Liturgy). If we truly believe in Christ, we know very well that the Almighty and Merciful God would never allow harm to come to us, most especially in the reception of Holy Communion.
Finally, it is important that we never forget that the Holy Sacraments are for the healing of both body and soul. As a priest of fifty years, I have never worried about consuming what remains of Holy Communion after everyone has received. "With the fear of God, with faith, and love draw near."
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George