The
Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and the Communion of the Holy Body and Blood of
Christ is the foundation and the culmination of the innermost life of the
Church, and the reason for Her existence. What do we know about it?
Here are several essential or simply interesting
facts about the central Sacrament of the Church, which can enhance your
knowledge and spur your further learning of the basic tenets of the Orthodox
faith:
1. Remembrance
of the Sacrifice
When Israelites were liberated from the Egyptian
captivity, each Jewish family had to slay a white lamb, the blood of which was
used to mark the door posts during the tenth plague (that is, killing of the
firstborns in every family) so as to guard against the Angel of Death. The lamb
was later eaten at a thanksgiving meal.
That innocent lamb was the prototype of our
Savior who pledged himself to a painful death for the redemption of the human
race. When we celebrate the Sacrament of Eucharist (Greek for “thanksgiving”)
during every Liturgy, we remember the great Sacrifice that our Savior offered
on the Cross for our redemption, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension.
We receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the
Sacrament of Communion to empower us and help us to tread the path of
salvation.
2. “White
Blood”
The Church uses bread and wine for the Sacrament
of Eucharist. They are the substances that mysteriously change into the Body
and Blood of Christ when a priest or a bishop invokes the Holy Spirit to
descend on them.
As a rule, the Church uses red wine for
communion because it looks like blood. In fact, the color of wine isn’t determined
precisely, unlike its quality and taste. That is why there are places,
e.g. Romania, where people use white wine for the Eucharist.
3. The
Miracle in Lanciano
During a liturgy in Lanciano (Italy) in the 8th
century one of the priests had doubts that the Body and Blood of Christ that
looked like bread and wine even after the transmutation were indeed the Body
and Blood of our Savior. The Lord revealed the true appearance of His Body and
Blood to the doubtful priest, and the priest repented.
As a lesson to others, the Lord allowed the real
appearance of the Holy Gifts to remain visible. That is why the particles of
the Body and Blood of Christ are preserved in Lanciano for more than a thousand
years. They were investigated by some scientists in the 1970s. The scientists
confirmed that the particles belonged to a human body.
4. The
Greatest Sacred Object
The whole Church is built around the Sacrament
of the Eucharist. The Chalice that contains the Body and the Blood of Christ is
the most sacred object. That is why it is forbidden to make the sign of the
cross in front of the Chalice or touch the Chalice with one’s hands, lest the
priest tips the Chalice over.
One shouldn’t kiss the cuff on the priest’s hand
during communion, either. Parents should pay extreme attention to their babies,
who should be carried to the Chalice in such a manner as to preclude them from
kicking the Chalice or pushing it with their arms.
5. Only
with Blood
Adults and grown-up children receive a particle
of the Body of Christ soaked in the Blood of Christ. However, babies take
communion only with the Blood of Christ to prevent them from choking on the
particle or spitting it out. People who suffer from gluten (a protein that is
found in bread) intolerance take communion only with the Blood, too.
6. The
Bread of Life and the Grapevine
Interestingly enough, the Lord did not only
establish the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the Church by offering bread and
wine to His apostles in the Cenacle and claiming them to be His own Body and
Blood. He also compared Himself to the bread of life or a grapevine — the
primary ingredients of the Holy Gifts — multiple times.
7. Tabernacle
There is a Holy Table in the center of every
sanctuary in every Orthodox church, with a special church-shaped vessel called
a tabernacle, which sits among the crosses, the Gospel books, and other church
supplies.
The tabernacle contains several particles of the
Body of Christ soaked in the Blood, with which a priest can go to the bed of a sick
or dying person at any time.
8. On a
Martyr’s Bosom
First Christians celebrated the Eucharist on
martyrs’ tombs. Later, they began celebrating the Eucharist on a Holy Table
inside which there were particles of holy relics. Still, there have been cases
when Christians didn’t have either an antimension (a special cloth with particles
of relics sewn into it) or the Holy Table: for example, in Soviet prison camps.
They celebrated the Sacrament of the Eucharist on the bosom of one of the
prisoners, who was a living martyr.
9. Prayers
Before the Holy Communion
The prayer rule before the Holy Communion was
shaped by Byzantine monks in the 10th-12th centuries. The prayers before the
Holy Communion were amended, and the rule acquired its contemporary form by the
13th-14th centuries. It consists of several troparia and Psalms, selected
prayers by the saints, three canons, and prayers that are read immediately
before the communion of the Holy Gifts.
Later, the pious tradition of special prayerful
preparation for the Communion was copied by other local Churches and spread
among lay people.
10. Wedding
There wasn’t a special ritual or a Sacrament to
bless a Christian matrimony in the earliest centuries of Christianity. The
believers had the usual Roman civil ceremony, and then had their marriage
blessed in the church by taking communion together.
By Andrey Segeda
Translated by The Catalog of
Good Deed
Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/tainstvo-tainstv-10-faktov-o-svyatom-prichashchenii
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