Why should you fast before communion? Three days before Communion: how to fast if you have no strength

The meaning of the sacrament

The first step in preparing for communion will be to understand the meaning of communion, so many go to church because it is fashionable and one could say that you took communion and confessed, but in fact such communion is a sin. When preparing for communion, you need to understand that you go to church to see the priest, first of all, to draw closer to the Lord God and repent of your sins, and not to arrange a holiday and an extra reason to drink and eat. At the same time, going to receive communion just because you were forced is not good; you must go to this sacrament at will, cleansing your soul of sins.

So, whoever wishes to worthily receive Holy Communion Mysteries of Christ, must prayerfully prepare himself for this two or three days in advance: pray at home in the morning and evening, visit church services. Before the day of communion, you must be at the evening service. To the home evening prayers is added (from the prayer book) the rule for Holy Communion.

The main thing is the living faith of the heart and the warmth of repentance for sins.

Prayer is combined with abstinence from fast food - meat, eggs, milk and dairy products, during strict fasting and from fish. The rest of your food should be kept in moderation.

Anyone wishing to receive communion should, preferably the day before, before or after the evening service, bring sincere repentance in their sins before the priest, sincerely revealing their soul and not hiding a single sin. Before confession, you must certainly reconcile both with your offenders and with those whom you have offended. During confession, it is better not to wait for the priest’s questions, but to tell him everything that is on your conscience, without justifying yourself in anything and without shifting the blame to others. Under no circumstances should you condemn someone or talk about the sins of others during confession. If it is not possible to confess in the evening, you need to do this before the start of the liturgy, or, in extreme cases, before the Cherubic Song. Without confession, no one except infants under seven years of age can be admitted to Holy Communion. After midnight, it is forbidden to eat or drink; you must come to Communion strictly on an empty stomach. Children should also be taught to abstain from food and drink before Holy Communion.

How to prepare for communion?

The days of fasting usually last a week, in extreme cases - three days. Fasting is prescribed on these days. Meal food is excluded from the diet - meat, dairy products, eggs, and on days of strict fasting - fish. Spouses refrain from physical intimacy. The family refuses entertainment and watching television. If circumstances permit, you should attend church services on these days. The morning and evening prayer rules are followed more diligently, with the addition of the reading of the Penitential Canon.

Regardless of when the Sacrament of Confession is celebrated in the church - in the evening or in the morning, it is necessary to attend the evening service on the eve of communion. In the evening, before reading prayers for bedtime, three canons are read: Repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother of God, Guardian Angel. You can read each canon separately, or use prayer books where these three canons are combined. Then the canon for Holy Communion is read before the prayers for Holy Communion, which are read in the morning. For those who find it difficult to perform such a prayer rule in one day, take the priest’s blessing to read three canons in advance during the days of fasting.

It is quite difficult for children to follow all the prayer rules for preparing for communion. Parents, together with their confessor, need to choose the optimal number of prayers that the child can handle, then gradually increase the number of necessary prayers necessary to prepare for communion, up to a full prayer rule to Holy Communion.

For some, it is very difficult to read the necessary canons and prayers. For this reason, others do not confess or receive communion for years. Many people confuse preparation for confession (which does not require such a large volume of prayers read) and preparation for communion. Such people can be recommended to begin the Sacraments of Confession and Communion in stages. First, you need to properly prepare for confession and, when confessing your sins, ask your confessor for advice. We need to pray to the Lord to help us overcome difficulties and give us strength to adequately prepare for the Sacrament of Communion.

Since it is customary to begin the Sacrament of Communion on an empty stomach, from twelve o’clock at night they no longer eat or drink (smokers do not smoke). The exception is infants (children under seven years of age). But children from a certain age (starting from 5–6 years, and if possible earlier) must be taught to the existing rule.

In the morning, they also don’t eat or drink anything and, of course, don’t smoke, you can only brush your teeth. After reading morning prayers prayers for Holy Communion are read. If reading prayers for Holy Communion in the morning is difficult, then you need to take a blessing from the priest to read them the evening before. If confession is performed in the church in the morning, you must arrive on time, before confession begins. If confession was made the night before, then the person confessing comes to the beginning of the service and prays with everyone.

Fasting before confession

People who are resorting to Communion of the Holy Sacraments of Christ for the first time need to fast for a week, those who take communion less than twice a month, or do not observe Wednesday and Friday fasts, or often do not really observe multi-day fasts, fast for three days before communion. Do not eat animal food, do not drink alcohol. Yes and lean food Don’t overeat, but eat as much as necessary to feel full and that’s all. But those who resort to the Sacraments every Sunday (as a good Christian should) can fast only Wednesday and Friday, as usual. Some also add - and at least on Saturday evening, or on Saturday - not to eat meat. Before communion, do not eat or drink anything for 24 hours. On the prescribed days of fasting, eat only plant-based foods.

It is also very important these days to keep yourself from anger, envy, condemnation, empty talk and physical communication between spouses, as well as on the night after communion. Children under 7 years old do not need to fast or confess.

Also, if a person goes to communion for the first time, you need to try to read the entire rule, read all the canons (you can buy a special book in the store, called “Rule for Holy Communion” or “Prayer book with the rule for communion”, everything is clear there). To make it not so difficult, you can do this by dividing the reading of this rule over several days.

Clean body

Remember that you are not allowed to go to the temple dirty, unless of course it is required life situation. Therefore, preparing for communion means that on the day you go to the sacrament of communion, you must wash your body from physical dirt, that is, take a bath, shower or go to the sauna.

Preparing for Confession

Before confession itself, which is a separate sacrament (it does not have to be followed by Communion, but it is desirable), you can not fast. A person can confess at any time when he feels in his heart that he needs to repent, confess his sins, and as quickly as possible so that his soul is not burdened. And if you are properly prepared, you can take communion later. Ideally, if possible, it would be good to attend the evening service, and especially before holidays or the day of your angel.

It is absolutely unacceptable to fast in food, but not change the course of your life in any way: continue to go to entertainment events, to the cinema for the next blockbuster, to visit, sit all day with computer toys, etc. The main thing in the days of preparation for Communion is to live They are different from other days of everyday life; you don’t have to work hard for the Lord. Talk to your soul, feel why it is spiritually bored. And do something that has been put off for a long time. Read the Gospel or spiritual book; visit people we love but have forgotten; ask for forgiveness from someone from whom we were ashamed to ask for it and we put it off until later; try these days to give up numerous attachments and bad habits. Simply put, these days you have to be bolder and be better than usual.

Communion in Church

The Sacrament of Communion itself takes place in the Church at a service called liturgy . As a rule, the liturgy is celebrated in the first half of the day; The exact start time of services and the days they take place should be found out directly in the temple you are going to go to. Services usually begin between seven and ten o'clock in the morning; The duration of the liturgy, depending on the nature of the service and partly on the number of communicants, is from one and a half to four to five hours. In cathedrals and monasteries, liturgies are served daily; in parish churches on Sundays and on church holidays. It is advisable for those preparing for Communion to attend the service from the beginning (for this is a single spiritual action), and also to attend the evening service the day before, which is prayerful preparation for the Liturgy and the Eucharist.

During the liturgy, you need to stay in the church without going out, prayerfully participating in the service until the priest comes out of the altar with a cup and proclaims: “Approach with the fear of God and faith.” Then the communicants line up one after another in front of the pulpit (first children and the infirm, then men and then women). Hands should be folded crosswise on the chest; You are not supposed to be baptized in front of the cup. When your turn comes, you need to stand in front of the priest, say your name and open your mouth so that you can put in a spoon with a particle of the Body and Blood of Christ. The liar must be thoroughly licked with his lips, and after wiping his lips with the cloth, reverently kiss the edge of the bowl. Then, without venerating the icons or talking, you need to move away from the pulpit and take a drink - St. water with wine and a particle of prosphora (in this way, it is as if the oral cavity is washed, so that the smallest particles of the Gifts are not accidentally expelled from oneself, for example, when sneezing). After communion you need to read (or listen in Church) thanksgiving prayers and in the future carefully guard your soul from sins and passions.

How to approach the Holy Chalice?

Each communicant needs to know well how to approach the Holy Chalice so that communion occurs orderly and without fuss.

Before approaching the Chalice, you must bow to the ground. If there are many communicants, then in order not to disturb others, you need to bow in advance. When the royal doors open, you must cross yourself and fold your arms crosswise on your chest, right hand over the left, and with such a folding of hands, take communion; you need to move away from the Chalice without releasing your hands. You need to approach with right side temple, and leave the left one free. The altar servers receive communion first, then the monks, the children, and only then everyone else. You need to give way to your neighbors, and under no circumstances push. Women need to wipe off their lipstick before communion. Women should approach communion with their heads covered.

Approaching the Chalice, you should loudly and clearly call your name, accept the Holy Gifts, chew them (if necessary) and immediately swallow them, and kiss the lower edge of the Chalice like the rib of Christ. You cannot touch the Chalice with your hands and kiss the priest’s hand. It is forbidden to be baptized at the Chalice! Raising your hand for sign of the cross, you can accidentally push the priest and spill the Holy Gifts. Having gone to the table with a drink, you need to eat antidor or prosphora and drink some warmth. Only after this can you venerate the icons.

If the Holy Gifts are given from several Chalice, they can only be received from one. You cannot receive communion twice a day. On the day of Communion, it is not customary to kneel, with the exception of bows during Great Lent when reading the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian, bows before the Shroud of Christ in Holy Saturday and kneeling prayers on the day of the Holy Trinity. Arriving home, you should first of all read prayers of thanksgiving for Holy Communion; if they are read in church at the end of the service, you need to listen to the prayers there. After communion, you should also not spit out anything or rinse your mouth until the morning. Participants should try to protect themselves from idle talk, especially from condemnation, and to avoid idle talk, they must read the Gospel, the Jesus Prayer, akathists, and Holy Scripture.

How to prepare for confession and communion? Preparing for confession and communion, especially for the first time, raises many, many questions. I remember my first communion. How difficult it was for me to figure everything out. In this article you will get answers to the questions: what to say in confession to a priest - an example? How to take communion and confession correctly? rules for communion in church? How to confess for the first time? how to prepare for communion? The answer to these questions is given by the modern Greek preacher Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos) and other priests.

Other useful articles:

Communion was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself at his last meal with the Apostles. The modern Greek preacher and theologian Archimandrite Andrei (Konanos) says, if people realized what a gift of unity with God they receive during communion, because now the blood of Christ flows in their veins... if they realized this fully, their lives would change a lot!

But, unfortunately, most people during communion are like children playing with precious stones and those who do not understand their value.

Rules for communion can be found in any Temple. They are usually presented in a small book called “HOW TO PREPARATE FOR HOLY COMMUNION.” These are the simple rules:

Before communion you need Fast for 3 days- eat only plant foods (no meat, dairy products and eggs).
Need to be at the evening service the day before communion.
Need to confess either at the evening service or on the day of communion at the very beginning of the liturgy (the morning service, during which communion takes place).
Need a few more days pray hard- to do this, read the morning and evening prayers and read the canons: Canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ ,
Canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos,
Canon to the Guardian Angel,
Follow-up to Holy Communion *. * If you have never read the Canons (in Church Slavonic), you can listen to the audio (available on prayer book sites at the links provided).
You need to take communion on an empty stomach (do not eat or drink anything in the morning). An exception is made for sick people, such as diabetics, for whom food and medicine are vital.

If you begin to receive communion at every liturgy, every Sunday, your confessor will be able to allow you to fast less and not read all the indicated prayers. Don’t be afraid to ask the priest and consult with him.

How is communion celebrated in church?

Suppose you decide to take communion on Sunday. This means that the night before (Saturday) you need to come to the evening service. Usually evening service in Temples starts at 17:00. Find out what time the liturgy (morning service) begins on Sunday, at which the communion itself will take place. Usually, the morning service in Temples begins at 9:00. If there was no confession at the evening service, then you confess at the beginning of the morning service.

About halfway through the service, the Priest will remove the Chalice from the altar. Everyone who was preparing for communion gathers near the chalice and folds their hands on their chest, right over left. They approach the bowl carefully so as not to tip it over. The priest gives the communicants the Holy Gifts with a spoon - a piece of the body and blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine.

After this, you need to go to the end of the Temple, where you will be given a drink. This is water diluted with wine. You need to drink it down so that not a single drop or crumb of the Eucharist is wasted. Only after this can you cross yourself. At the end of the service, prayers of thanksgiving should be heard.

How to prepare for confession? What to say to a priest in confession - an example? List of sins

The main rule in confession, which priests always remind us of, is not to recount sins. Because if you start retelling the story of how you committed a sin, then you will unwittingly begin to justify yourself and blame others. Therefore, in confession, sins are simply named. For example: pride, envy, foul language, etc. And so as not to forget anything, use a list of sins against God, against neighbors, against oneself(usually such a list is in the book “HOW TO PREPARE FOR HOLY COMMUNION.”

Write down your sins on a piece of paper so you don’t forget anything. Come to the Temple early in the morning so as not to be late for confession and the general prayer before confession. Before confession, go to the priest, cross yourself, venerate the Gospel and the cross, and begin listing your pre-recorded sins. After confession, the priest will read a prayer of permission and tell you whether you are allowed to receive communion.

It very rarely happens when a priest, for your correction, does not allow you to take communion. This is also a test of your pride.

It is important during confession, naming a sin, to promise yourself not to repeat it. It is very important on the eve of communion to reconcile with your enemies and forgive your offenders.

How to confess for the first time?

The first confession is often called general confession. As a rule, a piece of paper with a list of sins includes almost all the sins from the list of sins against God, one’s neighbor and oneself. The priest will probably understand that you have come to confession for the first time and will help you with advice on how to try not to repeat sins and mistakes.

I hope the article “How to prepare for confession and communion?” will help you decide and go to confession and communion. This is important for your soul, because confession is the cleansing of the soul. We wash our bodies every day, but we don’t care about the purity of our souls!

If you have never confessed or received communion and it seems to you that it is very difficult to prepare, I recommend that you still perform this feat. The reward will be great. I assure you that you have never experienced anything like this before. After communion, you will feel an extraordinary and incomparable spiritual joy.

The most difficult thing usually seems to be reading the canons and following to Holy Communion. Indeed, it is difficult to read the first time. Use the audio recording and listen to all these prayers over 2-3 evenings.

Listen in this video to the story of priest Andrei Tkachev about how much time (usually several years) separates a person from the desire to go to the first confession until the moment of the first confession.

I wish everyone to enjoy life and thank God for everything!

Alena Kraeva

Orthodox fasting is those days when people are purified in spirit. But at the same time, the body is also cleansed, because everything in every person should be pure - soul, body, and thoughts. On fasting days, you need to be attentive to your psychophysical state. A person who has decided that he is ready to limit his diet, in principle, knows which foods are allowed to be consumed in a given period and which are not.

Basic canons of nutrition during fasting

You need to figure out what you can still eat on fasting days, and what foods you need to exclude from your diet. So, the following are subject to mandatory exclusion:

Meat products;
Milk as well as butter, cottage cheese and cheeses;
Eggs and mayonnaise;
Fatty sweets and baked goods;
Fish and vegetable oil(on strict days of fasting);
Alcohol and tobacco.

These foods should not be eaten during Lent. There is an opinion that if a person does not eat meat, eggs, or drink milk, then he is deprived of protein, which is so necessary for the body. But when the right approach This is absolutely not the case with a lean diet.

There are many foods that are rich in protein. If you diversify your lean diet with mushrooms, eggplants, legumes and soybeans, you can get required amount squirrel. After all, even nutritionists have proven that soy can easily replace fish and meat.

And yet, before fasting, you should find out whether it will become dangerous for the body, because not everyone may benefit from abstaining from certain foods.

What is allowed to eat during strict fasting?

In Christianity, fasting days vary in severity. On one day one thing may be allowed, on the second - another. And there are days when you can’t eat at all. Most strict fast among Christians - the Great.

It lasts 40 days, during which any entertainment activities are prohibited. In addition, there are some canons that must be adhered to:

It is forbidden to eat any food on Fridays, as well as on the day of the beginning of Lent;
The first and last weeks are marked by the permission to eat vegetables, fruits and bread. Water is allowed as a drink.
On other days, honey, nuts and any plant foods are allowed.

What can you eat during fasting on non-strict days:

Eggplant;
Zucchini;
Fish;
Lentils;
Oatmeal;
Any fruit salads, of course, without dressing them with sour cream.

The main food during fasting is herbal products. These are mainly cereals (the best of course are buckwheat, wheat, barley and oatmeal, since these are native Russian types of cereals, and they are also rich in fiber and minerals).

Of course, you shouldn’t forget about the vitamins contained in vegetables and fruits. The main thing is that fasting does not cause a violation of the diet. You should not skip breakfast, and you also need to remember that it is advisable to snack more often during Lent.

Due to the fact that the Lenten diet does not contain animal protein, which gives the feeling that a person is full for a long time, you want to eat something substantial, especially in the first days. But in this case, you can forget about cleansing.

The best option here is regular nutrition, as well as the inclusion of whole grains in the diet, and of course beans.

It is important to remember that you need to prepare your body for any food restriction. For him, it will be the most severe stress if a person overeats every day and suddenly suddenly stops eating. There will be no benefit from such an attempt at cleansing.

Features of nutrition after fasting

Some people think that if the fast is over, then they need to make up for all the days and eat everything at once, and even more.

At the same time, without thinking at all that in this case there will not only be no benefit from abstinence, but even, on the contrary, only harm. How to eat after the end of fasting?

The first days should be like a gradual “fading” of fasting. It is not recommended to eat these days:

Meat (except perhaps chicken, turkey or fish);
Mushrooms, especially pickled ones;
Don't get carried away with baking;
High-calorie sweets such as cake, pastry with butter or cream;
Sausages and smoked meats.

Since the body, during the period of fasting, becomes weaned from animal food, you need to start eating it little by little, as if re-accustoming yourself. You should not eat fried meat or fish. It is advisable that the food be boiled and should be eaten in small portions, little by little.

It is better to limit salt in the first days after fasting. Don't get carried away flour products in butter and egg. Much healthier will be dishes made from cereals (rice, buckwheat, millet or oatmeal - it doesn’t really matter) with fruits, to which it is advisable to add more greens. After all, the body needs vitamins during this period.

The Sacrament of Communion - how to prepare for it, what can you eat?

The shortest duration of fasting before Communion is three days. It happens that a person cannot withstand these restrictions due to illness or even hard, exhausting work, while the body requires a lot of calories.

In this case, at confession, which necessarily takes place before communion, the priest must repent of this sin as well. What you cannot do is tell the priest that you have been fasting if the fast is not maintained.

So what can you eat during this fast? Almost the same things are allowed as on other fasting days:

You can eat vegetables and fruits;
Cereal porridge;
Boiled or baked fish;
Bread;
Nuts.

You can also eat sweets, such as dark chocolate, kozinaki, but it is better to limit the consumption of these products. The main thing is to remember that when consuming even those foods that are allowed, you need to know when to stop and not overeat.

The benefits of fasting for a person or “why fast”

Eating according to all the rules during fasting is very beneficial for human health. Allowed foods will provide the body with the necessary substances, and the absence of foods that are prohibited will prevent the body from wasting energy fighting toxins, etc.

Lenten nutrition inherently normalizes the functioning of the entire body, but its main benefit is this:

Improved digestion;
Getting rid of dysbacteriosis;
Cleansing the liver and normalizing its work;
Complete cleansing of the body. Slags and toxins are completely removed;
Eating every day will prevent gain excess weight.

Some people, fearing excess weight, do not touch, for example, pies with potatoes fried in oil, even vegetable oil. If you pay attention to fast days, then on weekends this food is completely permissible and is not at all harmful to health.

Why is this happening? It's simple. Even if you allow yourself to enjoy your favorite pies on a day off, all the substances the body does not need will be eliminated from the body over the next five weekdays.

Little joys after fasting

Only those people who really held Lent, after its completion they can fully experience the pleasure of everyday food. In the first days, after forty days of abstinence, ordinary food tastes unusually “sweet.”

Those foods that seemed ordinary before fasting seem like the most delicate nectar. Not everyone can experience such sensations. Only those few who truly abstained from forbidden food are capable of this.

After all, you no longer need to ask yourself the question: can I do this today, now? After all, no matter how hard a person tries, there is not always enough time for cooking, and on fasting days tomorrow you won’t be able to eat what you ate today.

That’s why it turns out that all food often consists of water, nuts and dried fruits.

To fast or not?

In any case, regardless of whether a person fasts or not, one should know moderation in everything. After all, if you exhaust yourself with constant hunger, the body will not receive the substances it needs and will use internal resources that are not endless.

But in the end, it will simply “get tired” of working and stop. Are there any benefits from such fasting? The answer is obvious - no. The same can be said about overeating. Excess will be deposited in the body, and as a result - obesity, heart disease and other internal organs.

So whether to fast or not is everyone’s business. The main thing is not to go to extremes.