How Orthodox Christians receive communion in the church. Sacrament of the sacrament in the Orthodox Church

I regularly partake of the sacrament in church in order to cleanse the accumulated negativity, feel even better connected with God and be filled with the amazing energy of the temple. I will tell you in detail about the meaning of communion and the features of the rite, which are important to know if you are going to perform it.

Communion or communion is the oldest church rite, the history of which began at the time of the Last Supper. The ceremony and its "regulations" were established by the Son of God himself,. Christ with his own hands broke off the bread and distributed it to the disciples-apostles, saying that this is his body, and the wine is his blood.

The sacrament of the sacrament has its own deep religious and sacred meaning. The ceremony symbolizes the restoration of unity and harmony between man and God, which existed in the Garden of Eden before the original sin committed by Eve and Adam.

The meaning of the sacrament is to give the beginnings of new life in the heavenly kingdom. The sacrament of the sacrament is inseparable from the image of Jesus, who at the cost of his own life and shed blood saved the human race and atoned for all its sins. And in the name of this sacrifice, a person, agreeing to receive communion, helps to restore the flesh and blood of God's son.

It is noteworthy that it is during the sacrament of the sacrament in the Orthodox Church that it is allowed to eat flesh (meat) and wine. It is believed that the slain body of an animal in this case symbolizes the incorruptible Divine nature. Meat nourishes the soul, which will then be reborn at the time of Baptism.

How to take communion in church

Almost everyone has heard the name of this rite, but few people understand how to properly receive communion in church. I'll tell you about the basic rules and give recommendations.

It is important to understand that communion in church is a rite, which assumes that a person is ready to transform his body and shake his soul.

What is important to observe when preparing for the ceremony, during and after it:

You should be as aware as possible of what you are going for. Understand why you need it. Not for the sake of curiosity, but for what? Answer this question honestly, and you will understand whether you need a ceremony at all.
The energy in temples is such that most people feel a certain awe, a sense of sacred awe. If you are completely indifferent, you may not need to think about how to receive the sacrament. Your soul is not ready - it does not feel a connection with God.
Only a sincerely believing person should receive communion. Otherwise, what is the point of this action? The event will affect only the one who feels, understands God, believes in him and wants to enlist his support.
Before the ceremony, you need to understand the whole meaning of this great sacrament in order to fully account for what will happen.
Communion in the church has its own rules - the state of a person's soul should be peaceful and calm. It is better to cleanse yourself of negative emotions, grievances and claims in advance. The inner state, emotions are extremely important.

How to properly receive communion in church: rules

So, how is the sacrament in the church.

The whole ceremony takes place in strictly regulated stages. It is important to know how to behave at this or that moment of time. The recommendations are as follows:

On the eve of communion, special evening services are held in churches, during which the priest says prayers with special religious significance.
On the day of the sacrament, it is better to come to church early, before the start of the whole action.
When the ceremony begins, you must silently listen to the priest. Do not leave the temple before the end of the prayer. Stand and listen until the priest leaves the altar seat and calls everyone to take communion.
As soon as the invitation follows, people in the temple line up in the following sequence: children, sick, disabled and old people, men, women.
In the queue, you must keep your hands on your chest, folding them crosswise. Important: as soon as your turn comes to the cup, you do not need to be baptized - this is not customary during the sacrament.
When you are next to the priest, introduce yourself and open your mouth. They will put a liar in it, which needs to be licked with your lips. Then blot them with a handkerchief and kiss the edge of the bowl.
It is very important to pass the ceremony in silence. Do not contact anyone, do not go near the icons. After taking the sacrament, simply step back and get the wine and holy water.
After you find yourself at home and the ceremony is completed, read the prayers, addressing God or the saints with thanks.

Watch a video on what it means to take the sacrament in church:

What then?

After you have received the Holy Communion, it is important to adhere to certain guidelines. It is necessary to avoid negativity, not to let it into your soul. Follow the commandments and not commit sins. Repeat the sacrament periodically. It's great if there is an opportunity to come to the temple for this at least once a month.

It will help your soul to cleanse itself of all bad and negative in order to make room for positive events and joyful emotions.

A long refusal from the sacrament is a real disaster for a person. Sins, passions, negativity accumulate in his soul. The further, the more of them. All this from the inside poisons life and eats away at the soul. Therefore, it is so important to visit the temple from time to time and cleanse all of this.

But, of course, one should come to church only consciously, and not because “it is necessary”. Only a sincere desire and understanding of the process, its religious significance will make sense.

The Orthodox faith presupposes the obligatory participation of Christians in church life. But simply going to church every Sunday will not make much sense if a person does not participate in the fullness of church life, does not become one body with the Church. How can this be done?

We have been given great joy through which we can truly unite with the Lord, and which contains the whole meaning of Christianity - this is the Sacrament of the Sacrament. Why is it so important and how to get started with it? Let's take a look at this article.

What is the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ

We see the description of the first Communion in the Gospel itself, when the Lord gave his disciples the blessed bread and wine, commanding them to do so forever.

This is one of the most important quotes in the Gospel of Luke, which deals with the establishment by our Lord Jesus Christ himself of the great Mystery of the Eucharist (which in Greek means "thanksgiving"). The events described in the Gospel took place on Maundy Thursday, at the Last Supper, just before the death of Christ on the cross and His subsequent resurrection.

The significance of the Communion for an Orthodox person is enormous and it cannot be compared with any other rules, rituals or traditions of our church. It is in this Sacrament that a person has the ability to reunite with God not only spiritually (as in prayer), but also physically. We can say that the Eucharist is an opportunity to recreate the spiritual essence of man, it is an opportunity to grasp the invisible connection between the Creator and creation.

The mystery of the Eucharist cannot be grasped by a simple human mind, but it can be admitted through the heart and soul. The Sacrament is inextricably linked with the Sacrifice that the Lord brought on the Cross. Through the shedding of His Holy Blood, man received atonement for his sins and the opportunity to inherit eternal life. In the Sacrament of the Sacrament, a bloodless sacrifice is offered at each service, and a person comes into contact with God himself.

Important! The sacrament is not some kind of symbolic memory of the Last Supper, as is often heard among Protestants.

Orthodoxy teaches that the Eucharist is the eating of the real Body and the real Blood of Christ, only under the guise of bread and wine. The famous theologian and professor A.I. Osipov explains that during special prayers, which are pronounced by the priest in the altar, two different natures are combined - physical and spiritual.

In the physical sense, we partake of bread and wine, but at the same time they carry an absolutely real and living God. This is a complex theological point that is not always understood by ordinary believers, but this is precisely the basis of Orthodoxy. The sacrament is not a ceremony, a symbol, or a form. This is the real, living Lord, Whom we literally let into ourselves.

In a practical sense, this Sacrament looks like this. The priest in the altar reads special prayers, during which particles are removed from the consecrated prosphora with commemoration of those whose names were given in the notes. These particles are put into a special Bowl and poured over with wine. All this rite is accompanied by special prayers. After the consecration, the Body and Blood of Christ is carried before the altar and the people who were preparing can proceed to Communion.

Why do you need to take communion

Often in the church environment one can hear the opinion that if a person prays, observes the commandments, tries to live according to his conscience, then this is enough to be considered a good Christian. It may be enough to be considered, but in order to be a true Christian, you need more.

The Eucharist is the eating of the real Body and the real Blood of Christ, only under the guise of bread and wine

An analogy can be given: here a person loves someone. He loves strongly, sincerely, with all his soul. What will all the thoughts of the lover be about? That's right - about how to connect with your beloved, to be with him every moment and every hour. It is the same with God - if we are Christians, then we love Him with all our souls, and we try to build our life so as to be always close to Him.

And now the Lord Himself grants us a great Miracle - the ability to contain Himself in our sinful bodies. To accommodate as often as we want it. So, can we be called believers if we ourselves refuse this meeting, avoid it? Why then is everything else needed if we do not recognize the Living God?

All the holy fathers of our church unanimously reiterated the importance of the Communion for the life of an Orthodox person. Even those of the monks who led a secluded hermit life periodically went to the brethren to participate in the Eucharist. For them, doing this was a natural need of the soul, like breathing, eating or sleeping for the body.

Important! One should strive to so deeply absorb the Sacrament into oneself that it becomes an integral part of the spiritual life of a Christian.

It should be understood that all the Sacraments of the Church are not strict rules introduced by God for our taming. All these are the tools of our salvation, which are necessary for the person himself. God always stands next to every person and is always ready to enter his soul. But man himself, with his life, does not allow the Lord into himself, persecutes Him, leaves no place for Him in his soul. And the path of Orthodox church life with the obligatory participation in the Sacraments is a way to open your soul to God so that he can settle there.

Communion practice: preparation, frequency, features

The greatest number of questions from believers is raised by the practical side of participation in the fullness of church life. Since Orthodoxy is not a formal faith of prohibitions, there are many different opinions and approaches to Communion.

The most important sacrament of the Orthodox Church is the sacrament.

Some priests can also give various recommendations in this regard, based on their pastoral experience and benefits for a particular person. Don't be embarrassed by so many different opinions. In essence, they boil down to one goal - so that a person worthily admits the Lord into his life.

As for the official position of the Church on the participation of believers in the Eucharist, there is a special document that clarifies all the main points. It bears the title "On the participation of the faithful in the Eucharist" and was signed by representatives of the Bishops' Meeting of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2015.

According to this document, the frequency, rules of preparation and other requirements for believers before and after accepting Christ's Mysteries are determined by spiritual mentors based on the characteristics of the life of a particular person. Let us consider below the features of the communion of modern Christians.

How to properly prepare for the Sacrament?

The sacrament is a very important and responsible moment in the spiritual life, therefore it requires special preparation. As we prepare for some special days in worldly life, so we must take the time to prepare to meet God.

According to the rules of our Church, before Communion, all believers are supposed to fast and a special prayer rule. Fasting is needed in order to pacify our flesh a little, to quench its passions and subordinate it to spiritual needs. Prayer calls us to dialogue with the Lord, to communion with Him.

Before Communion, all believers have a special prayer rule.

If you take an Orthodox prayer book, you can see there that before accepting the Holy Mysteries of Christ, believers need to read a special rule. It includes the Follow-up to Holy Communion, as well as several canons and akathists. It is customary to read these prayers in addition to the basic morning and evening prayer rules.

For a novice Christian who has decided to participate in the Eucharist for the first time in his life, it may seem very difficult to read such a large volume of prayer texts. In addition, such backbreaking work will lead to despondency, great fatigue and a lack of understanding of the meaning.

Important! Any prayers, including those preparatory to Communion, must be read carefully, heartily, passing every word through your soul. Mechanical subtraction in pursuit of high volume is completely unacceptable.

Therefore, a person who first decided to receive Holy Communion should consult with an experienced priest about the feasible amount of prayers. It is much better to read a small rule, but with attention, than to subtract everything, but completely without understanding what it is about.

About fasting

Fasting is abstaining from eating animal products, as well as limiting idleness, amusement, and mirth. Do not think that fasting is a dull state of inhibition of all the joys in life. On the contrary, fasting just helps a person to cleanse his soul so that the real Joy of God can be contained in it.

The measure of fasting before the Eucharist is as individual as the prayer rule. If a person has not had the experience of restriction before, then it makes no sense to impose a weekly fast on him before Communion. This will only lead to the fact that the person will break loose, give up everything and completely change his mind about going to church.

Important! It is a common practice for believers to fast for three days before Communion. In addition, one must go to church on an empty stomach and not eat or drink anything else before eating the Body and Blood of Christ.

The number of days of fasting may vary depending on the frequency of communion. If a person rarely starts the Sacrament, for example, several times a year, or once a fast, then, of course, the fasting can be longer (from several days to a week). If a person leads a rich spiritual life and tries to receive Holy Communion every Sunday or every trip to church, he simply will not be able to fast for so long.

Believers Fast Before Communion

For Orthodox Christians, who very often participate in the Eucharist, it is permissible to reduce fasting to one day the day before. In any case, it is advisable to resolve such issues not independently, but on the advice of an experienced priest. On the one hand, it is important not to take unbearable feats, and on the other, not to be lazy. An attentive confessor will be able to determine the correct line.

Confession

Despite the fact that confession is a separate Sacrament, it is inextricably linked with the Eucharist. The Orthodox tradition has always been based on the obligation to confess before accepting the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

Confession before communion is quite logically explainable, because even while waiting for guests at our home, we put things in order and clean up the dirt. How can we admit the Lord into ourselves without having cleansed our souls beforehand with repentance?

Important! Many holy fathers warn that if a person does not feel the inner need for frequent confession, then he is in a state of spiritual sleep.

Confession, when accompanied by sincere repentance, cleanses the soul, removes the burden of grave sins. A person gets rid of all that is superfluous and can let the Lord into himself. Confession is necessary every time a person approaches the Eucharist, regardless of its frequency.

Relaxation in preparation

Despite the severity of all the necessary preparatory moments, some believers can relax the rules. Thus, sick people can shorten or even abolish the Eucharistic fast if, for health reasons, they cannot do without food.

For example, with diabetes mellitus, a person must receive food strictly at a certain time. What if in the morning a believer cannot go to the temple on an empty stomach? Of course, it is better to eat a little than to deprive yourself of God.

And also certain indulgences are allowed for pregnant and lactating mothers. They already carry bodily feat, and there is no need to strengthen it. Small children under 7 years old are allowed to receive communion without fasting and any special preparations.

Old people, due to their weakness, can also ask the priest for permission to reduce the number of prayers or days of fasting. The essence of preparation is not to tire yourself with the absence of the usual food and very long prayers, but, on the contrary, to nourish yourself with the joy of a future meeting with God.

It is very important to start accepting the Holy Mysteries of Christ not formally, but realizing that we are in contact with a great Miracle. A sincere, heartfelt approach can give a person great spiritual gifts and a sense of the presence of God in life.

How to Prepare for Confession and Communion

One of the main sacred rites of the Orthodox Church is communion of the believer. The sacrament of the Eucharist, performed sincerely, at the call of the soul, is of great importance for a Christian. Passing the rite with an understanding of the essence and importance of the ritual leads to sincere repentance, receiving forgiveness, and spiritual cleansing.

What is communion

Belonging to a person's religious denomination implies the observance of traditions. What is the Eucharist? The most important religious ceremony involves receiving from the hands of a priest and then eating bread and wine, symbolizing the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ. The sacrament includes prayers, obeisances, chants, sermon. The sacrament in the church connects a person to God, strengthens the spiritual connection with the Higher powers. To conduct a ceremony in a church requires the believer's purity, both physical and mental. Communion must be preceded by confession and preparation.

Sacrament of the sacrament

The rite originates from the Last Supper, which preceded the crucifixion of Christ. Having gathered with the disciples at the table, the Savior took the bread, divided it into parts and distributed it with the words that it was His Flesh. Then Christ blessed the cup of wine, calling its contents His Blood. The Savior instructed his followers to always perform a ceremony in memory of Him. This custom is followed by the Russian Orthodox Church, where the Eucharist is held daily. In pre-Petrine times, there was a decree according to which all laity were obliged to receive communion in church at least once a year.

Why is the holy sacrament necessary

The sacrament of communion is of great importance for a believer. A layman who does not want to perform the rite of the Eucharist moves away from Jesus, who commanded to observe the tradition. Breaking the connection with God leads to confusion, fear in the soul. A person who regularly receives communion in church, on the contrary, strengthens his religious faith, becomes more peaceful, closer to the Lord.

How to take communion in church

The Eucharist is the first step that a person takes towards God. This act must be deliberate, voluntary. To confirm the purity of his intention, the layman should prepare for the sacrament in the church. First, you need to ask for forgiveness from those who may be offended by you. For several days before the ceremony, an adult needs:

Observe the fast, refusing to eat meat dishes, eggs, dairy products. Food restrictions are imposed for a period of one to three days, depending on the physical condition.
Give up the habit of "eating" yourself and others. Internal aggression should be minimized. You need to behave kindly to others, disinterested help to others is useful.
Eliminate profanity, tobacco, alcohol, intimacy from everyday life.
Do not attend entertainment events, do not watch entertainment TV programs.
Read evening, morning prayers.
Attend Liturgy, listen to sermons. It is especially recommended to attend the evening worship service on the eve of the day of the sacrament, read the Follow-up.
Study spiritual literature, read the Bible.
Confess on the eve of communion in church. This requires a comprehension of life, events, actions. Sincere confession is needed not only as preparation for communion. Repentance makes a believer cleaner, gives a feeling of lightness and freedom.

The rite of communion

On the day of the ceremony, you need to skip breakfast and come to the temple early, feel the atmosphere of the place, get ready, tune in to the desired mood. What is communion in the church? The sacrament begins during the service, closer to its end. The Royal Gates are opened, and a relic is brought to the visitors - a bowl with consecrated gifts - Cahors and bread. Foods are symbols of the Savior's Flesh and Blood. The bowl is placed on a special platform called the pulpit. The priest reads the prayer of thanks for the sacrament.

How to receive communion in church? Each parishioner who comes up to the bowl is given a spoonful of food by the priest. You need to get closer, fold your arms in a cross on your chest, say your name. Then you should kiss the base of the bowl. You can leave the temple after the end of the service. Before leaving, you need to kiss the cross. The ritual, done sincerely and from the bottom of the heart, brings the believer closer to Christ, gives the soul happiness and salvation. It is important to preserve holy grace in the heart after communion, not to lose it outside the church.

How children receive communion

The sacrament of a child is important for his spiritual maturation. The ritual is needed for the baby to be under the care of a guardian angel, in whose honor he was baptized. The first communion in the church takes place after baptism. Children under the age of seven do not need to confess the day before. At the same time, it does not matter how often the parents of the baby take communion in church, or whether they do it at all.

An important rule of communion for children in the church is to conduct the rite on an empty stomach. A very small child is allowed to have breakfast. It is better to feed the baby at least half an hour before the ceremony, so that he does not burp. After three years of age, it is advisable to bring children to church on an empty stomach, but there is no strict rule. It is important that the child gradually gets used to the restrictions during preparation. For example, you can remove games, cartoons, meat, something very tasty. Children are not required to follow prayer rules.

With infants, you can come to the sacrament itself. With older children, it is allowed to come early, depending on how long the child can withstand standing in the temple. Children often lack patience; on the contrary, they have a lot of energy. You need to understand this and not force the baby to stand in one place, instilling a dislike for the ceremony. During the sacrament, an adult pronounces the name for a small child. When the baby grows up, he must name himself.

How is the communion of the sick

If a person for health reasons is unable to listen to the Liturgy, to receive communion within the walls of the church, this is easily solved by conducting the ritual at home. Severely ill patients are admitted by the canons of Orthodoxy to the procedure. Reading prayers and fasting are optional. However, confession with repentance of sins is necessary. Patients are allowed to receive communion after eating. Priests often visit hospitals to confess and receive the Holy Communion.

How often can you have the sacrament ceremony?

The ceremony must be performed when the soul desires it, when there is an inner need. The number of participles is not regulated by representatives of the Patriarchate. Most believers receive Communion once or twice a month. The ceremony is necessary for special occasions - at a wedding, baptism, at name days, during great holidays. The only limitation is that you are not allowed to take the sacrament more than once a day. Holy gifts are served from two church vessels, you need to try only from one.

Video

People go to the temple of God to participate in the Holy Eucharist - the main event for which the church and temples were created. The Holy Eucharist is the Communion. What is the Sacrament in the church, what it is for and by whom it is established - we will analyze in this article.

The Eucharist (and for Protestants the Lord's Vespers or the Breaking of Bread) is the sacrament of the church, the central part of divine services and the main event in the life of a Christian. In the sacrament, Christ unites with man: having consumed him worthily, it becomes possible to assimilate the Son of God, as far as is accessible to everyone. Christ gave Himself to us - in every sense.

Communion in the church: what is it and why?

The sacrament is bread and wine, which after a special prayer, "transubstantiation," symbolizes the Body and Flesh of the Lord. The Lord left His Body and Blood to us at the Great Supper before His sufferings on the Cross, as it is written in the Gospel.

And when they were eating, Jesus took the bread and, having blessed it, broke it and, distributing it to the disciples, said: take, eat: this is my body. And taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them and said: Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matt. 26, 26-28)

"... do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22, 19)

The sacrament is hidden from us in its true form and the image of bread and wine is preserved, since it is not natural for a person to consume flesh for food, even if it is Divine. But after the transubstantiation, that is, after the sacrament has been performed, the property is changed - this is already the true Body and the true blood of Christ.

The sacrament was created and introduced by the Lord Himself on the eve of the betrayal of Judas, immediately before the arrest, scourging and execution. The communion that is consumed in the church is union with God the Father in Christ, reconciliation with Him for the sake of His Son. This is the New Testament between man and God, who brought the Savior to earth. Christ gave himself up as a sacrifice so that we eat His Body and drink His Blood and through this we have eternal life in us, once lost in Paradise, as He told us in the Gospel.

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he abides in me and I in him (John 6, 53,56)

Communion in the Catholic Church is different from the Orthodox. So, the first one uses non-leaven bread for the sacrament, and the second one uses yeast bread.

How to Prepare for Communion in Church?

Preparing for the Sacrament in the church is primarily about observing yourself. One should not approach the Holy Gifts if an insult to someone lives in the heart, if something is not forgiven, if forgiveness is not asked from those who have been offended. Be sure to pass another sacrament on the eve of Communion - Repentance. Repentance consists in sincere repentance for sins and a firm decision not to repeat them again.

You need to bring your contrition for your sins to confession to the priest. It is not enough to repent "in the soul" - the apostles commanded us to perform the sacrament of confession in the presence of their successor, who is a priest. We cannot break this hierarchy. Confession is told in private to a priest - for Catholics it happens completely incognito, while for Orthodox Christians the confessing priest sees a person's face, but confession is hidden from prying ears. The service, during which the sacrament of confession takes place, is served in the evening, on the eve of the Liturgy, usually it begins at 17.00.

Another important matter is the physical and prayer preparation for the reception of the sacrament. In order to adequately receive Christ into oneself, the church recommends reading special prayers before Communion and abstaining from meat and dairy dishes for several days. In Orthodoxy, prayers for Communion include a rule from the prayer book:

a rule for a dream coming on the eve of communion;
three canons: to the Lord, the Virgin Mary, the Guardian Angel;
following to Holy Communion;
morning rule before service.

The listed prayers are of a recommendatory nature; it is not easy for a beginner to read everything thoughtfully. Therefore, the rule is allowed to be reduced - down to the most necessary ten prayers, which are contained in the sequence to Holy Communion. But the reduction of the rule - as well as other indulgences for Communion - is recommended to be discussed with the priest after confession, since the required number of prayers must be selected individually.

How is the sacrament in church?

Liturgy is served in the Orthodox church in the morning. What time the service begins can be found in a particular church behind a candle box, since the schedule is different for everyone. Liturgy ("common cause") is the most important divine service, an amazingly beautiful act, filled with deep content and meaning. It consists of the most ancient hymns and is aimed at approaching Communion with the necessary prayers and the correct consecration of the Gifts. Participants pray heartily at this service and at the end they reverently receive communion.

In the Catholic Church, Communion takes place at Mass, without the rite of consecration, also after special prayers, which are established by the Catholic catechism. Catholic worship is filled with beauty, which is conveyed by a skilful choir and the famous organ - an instrument that accompanies the sacred performance.

After Communion, a prayer of thanks is read and then, after kissing the cross, everyone can go home in order to carefully preserve the grace received from the Lord with purity of heart, silence and concentration.

What is the Sacrament in the church can only be understood by experience. The ineffable connection between man and God, so natural for the intact Adam, became again available to people. The human soul longs for Divine communion, but sometimes it seeks it not there at all. How often do we choose vice and questionable pleasures? The soul seeks paradise, but often makes mistakes in its search. The state of communion with the Lord, subject to the worthy reception of the sacrament, can give the desired completeness. But it is important to remember that Judas also received Communion (one of the first), and his Communion was his condemnation. Therefore, we will approach such an important sacrament with utmost responsibility in order to find the desired connection.

Participle(Greek κοινωνία (kinonia) - communion; μετάληψις - acceptance) (- from Greek Εὐχαριστία (Eucharist) - thanksgiving) - in which bread and wine are put into the true Body and true Blood of our Lord, after which the believers consume them for abandonment and into Eternal Life.

In the early Church, communion was also called "kinonia" ( communication), i.e. communication of people with God and in God, i.e. stay in Him and.

The Savior Himself said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day” (). With these words, the Lord pointed out the necessity for all Christians of the closest union with Him in the Sacrament of the Sacrament.

Whom can a priest not admit to Communion?

Those whose sins fall under the Church canons prohibiting communion. The grounds for prohibiting communion for a certain period of time may be a grave sin (fornication, murder, theft, witchcraft, renunciation of Christ, obvious heresy, etc.), or a moral state that is completely incompatible with communion (for example, refusal to reconcile with a repentant offender ).

What is the Sacrament?

Archpriest Evgeny Goryachev

Leading. What is Communion? Is this a Sacrament? Rite of passage? A sacred action? Magic or witchcraft?
Father Eugene. Good question. speaks to some extent in a language that is very understandable to all people, but up to a certain point. After this moment, the language of conventions begins, the language of the icon, the language of the sacred. The term "Communion", as well as synonyms: the Eucharist, the Holy Gifts, the Body and Blood of Christ, refer to this. Returning to your question, I would say that, of course, in history, people who were not within the ritual circle, that is, those who perceived it from the inside, being ecclesiastical, the Sacrament of the Eucharist was perceived as a rite, and as magic, and as witchcraft. ... The famous novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" directly indicates that this is something barbaric: "They eat their God." This is something connected with paganism, with some kind of infernal antiquity, which modern man cannot perceive. But, of course, he does not relate to this in the way that people outside think about it, and from some times Tolstoy became external in relation to the Church, and they perceive it as taught by both Holy Scripture, and tradition, and the Installer of this Sacrament, the Lord. Jesus Christ. I have already pronounced this word - "sacrament". The Church perceives this as something mysterious, which we cannot fully explain, but simply share the experience of experiencing in this sacred rite of every Christian who absorbs the Holy Gifts. In short, I would say that the Sacraments differ from other commandments of God in that they do not speak about ethics, but about mysticism. They were given to us precisely so that ethics would become real, not an abstraction, at which we look and say: "Yes, this is beautiful, yes, this is correct, but I cannot fulfill it." Everyone probably remembers the fresco of the Sistine Chapel "The Creation of Adam", where the Divine hand reaches out to meet the human hand. So, I would say this: the Sacraments, including the Communion, were given by God in order for our human weakness to receive support in the Divine fortress. God from eternity reaches out his hand in order to support the weak hand of man. And all the Church Sacraments, starting with Baptism and ending with the Wedding and Unction - they are addressed precisely to this. God supports us, including through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Leading. What does "Body and Blood" mean? Is this cannibalism?
Father Eugene. It may be perceived this way if we proceed from the linguistic context, but if we turn to the Bible story, we see that the One who established this Sacrament, our Lord Jesus Christ, refers the listeners to the most ancient Biblical story: “Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and dead, the bread that I will give you will be for you to eternal life. " “Give us this kind of bread every day,” the Jews said. “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” says the Lord Jesus Christ, “whoever eats the Body and drinks my Blood will have life in him.” These terms sound like: Body and Blood, but whenever we eat meat, no matter whose: pork, beef, venison, rabbit meat - we always taste dead separateness. And at the Last Supper, not dead, but living Christ pointed to the bread and said: "This is my body." Not dead, but living Christ pointed to the cup of wine and said: "This is my blood." What is the essence of the Sacrament? In an inexplicable way for man, the whole whole living Christ was united with this bread and with this wine, therefore we partake not of the dead separateness, but of the whole living Christ.

Leading. Yet why - the Sacrament?
Father Eugene. Indeed, it is very interesting. Participle. We see in this word, as it were, two sides: the prefix and, in fact, the root "part" itself, that is, we join something, become parts of something larger. The apostle Paul said, "Do you not know that you are co-bodied with Christ?" What does it mean? We eat in the usual order of laws so that what we have eaten becomes us. If a person is not very picky about the amount eaten, then you can track on the scales how much he recovered after sitting at the table. In the Church Sacrament, the order of laws is exactly the opposite. It is not food that becomes us, but we become that to which we partake. That is why we say, "Communion," we become part of something greater.

Leading. Can everyone take communion?
Father Eugene. Of course, yes, but for this it is necessary to meet several conditions. Of course, a person must be baptized, because baptism is the pass, forgive me for this image, to participate in the mystical life of the Church, the pass to the rest of the Sacraments. The Church cannot admit an unbaptized person to the Sacrament, because this will be violence against him. If he did not show his desire to be a Christian, to offer him a purely Christian pastime, spiritual mysticism, this would be a violation of his freedom. But, even if a person is baptized in childhood, but has lost faith or perceives the Communion as a magical rite, or he has some other motives and considerations on this score, then the Church reminds that Communion in this case may not only fail to ennoble and heal a person, but it can be harmful to him. By the way, Judas, a participant in the Last Supper, also received communion, and it is said about him that "with this piece Satan entered into him." Why? The greatest shrine, which should both ennoble, and transform, and heal, at the same time becomes for Judas the path to a worse life. Because in his heart he already carried the desire to betray the Savior. The priest, coming out with the Eucharistic cup, always utters the same words: "With the fear of God and with faith, draw near." With faith that this is indeed the Body and Blood of Christ. And with fear, because it is possible to partake not in improvement, not in healing, but in judgment and condemnation.
As far as reality is concerned, here, it seems to me, the Christian tradition has divided into two different camps, and Orthodoxy has gone in the middle between them. The Protestants began to say that the Communion should be perceived as a kind of symbol, behind which there is no reality, as a convention. Christ speaks of himself in the Gospel as a door, but we do not perceive him as a door. Talking about the vine, it does not mean that He is the branch of the vine. Likewise, the Communion is a convention and nothing more. There is another extreme, which perceives this as a hypertrophied form of naturalism: it is meat and blood. In this case, indeed, it is legitimate to speak of anthropophagy, this is cannibalism in its purest form. As I already said, Orthodoxy chooses the middle path, which does not dare to say that this is only a symbol. It is a symbol, but there is reality behind this symbol. And he does not dare to talk about naturalism, because in this case we partake of dead separateness. I repeat: the living Christ enters into a person in order to transform him, but everything depends on the state of the soul in which a person receives communion. Every person can take Communion if he is baptized, but the fruits of this Communion depend on the moral component of each individual person.

Leading. If a person is baptized and believes in the truth of the Holy Gifts, is it necessary to observe any additional conditions in order to receive the Holy Communion?
Father Eugene. Quite right, such conditions are needed. If a person is baptized, and if at the same time he does not doubt that this is the Body and Blood of Christ, the Holy Gifts, the Church still requires additional preparation from him. It consists in attending divine services, reading the Holy Scriptures, and finally in fasting. Why is this needed? When we sit down at an ordinary table, at best, we read a short prayer, and at worst, we simply cross ourselves and eat food, nothing more. But the fact is that no matter how connected in their substantial form the Holy Gifts and any other products, this is food, in the end. We still say that this is a special food, and since it is special, then our preparation for it is expressed in the fact that we tune our soul in a certain way. After all, body and soul are very closely related. We partake in order to receive the result in the soul, but before we partake, we influence our body and our soul in order for the Holy Gifts to cause the necessary resonance. Not in the sense that this is some kind of magic: I read so many prayers or fasted, and then the grace of the influence of the Holy Gifts will be such and such, and if I did less, it will be less. No, but because we prove to God - as, say, we prove our love to the bride, our care to a sick mother - we prove to God that we are in awe of this Sacrament. We are afraid to defile the gift that God has given us with our unworthiness. Although, of course, the painful perception of the topic of unworthiness should not lead us to the area where a person does not receive communion at all because of pseudo-piety. I think that if you take the Sacrament as a medicine, then a person, approaching the cup, keeps in his mind one simple thought: "I am not worthy, Lord, make me worthy."

Leading. How often should you receive communion?
Father Eugene. If we talk about the church-legal side, then if a person prays, tries to fulfill the commandments, reads the Holy Scriptures, does good deeds, but does not partake, then we are talking only about the greater or lesser degree of his falling away from the church fullness. Because the Lord said: "If you do not take communion, you will not have My life in you." If we talk about the technical side of the matter, then it seems to me that this mood that I mentioned, the desire to meet with God, to meet in order to fulfill the commandment and receive renewal - it should be multiplied by an internal self-discipline attitude. Why? Because there can be addiction, and in this case, if a person, figuratively speaking, steps into Communion, opening the door with his foot, then he needs to take a break. When he takes communion with trembling and feels that this trembling has not left his soul, he can do it at least every week.

Abbot Peter (Mescherinov):
The gospel preaches the gospel to us the words of Christ: I came in order that they might have life and have it in abundance (). I am the way and the truth and the life (). The Lord, wishing to join us to Himself, to give us this “abundant life,” chose for this not some kind of mental-intellectual or aesthetic-cultural method, but the simplest, most natural for man - through eating.
As food enters us and dissolves in us, penetrates to the last cell of our body, so the Lord wanted to penetrate into us to the very last molecule, to unite with us, to commune with us, so that we could commune with Him to the end.
The human mind refuses and is unable to understand the terrible depth of this action of God; verily, this is the love of Christ, which surpasses all understanding (see).

priest Alexander Torik:
It should be noted that in some cases, usually for the lack of faith of a priest or those praying, the Lord allows a miracle to happen - bread and wine become real human flesh and blood (such cases are even provided for in the priestly "Servant" in the instruction for priests called "Teaching News", (see the section on unforeseen events).
Usually, after some time, flesh and blood again take on the form of bread and wine, but an exception is known: in Italy, in the city of Lanciano, Flesh and Blood that have miraculous properties have been stored for many centuries, into which bread and wine were laid at the Divine Liturgy ().

saint († 1923):
“Partake often and do not say that you are unworthy. If you say that, you will never receive communion, because you will never be worthy. Do you think that there is at least one person on earth who is worthy of the communion of the Holy Mysteries? No one is worthy of this, and if we do partake, it is only by the special mercy of God. We are not made for the sacrament, but the sacrament is for us. It is we, sinners, unworthy, weak, who more than anyone else need this saving source ... I partake you often, I proceed from the idea of joining you in the Lord, so that you feel how good it is to be with Christ. "

holy righteous John of Kronstadt:
A disaster for the soul is not to partake of the Holy Mysteries for a long time: the soul begins to stink with passions and sins, the strength of which increases as we do not approach the Sacrament of the Sacrament for a long time.