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Girls, do you take communion while you're on your period? Why or why not?
Don't know if my comments are wanted or not but I am going to give them anyway....
Instead of asking something like this, why not generalize it more and say "If you are bleeding should you take communion?"
The problem with receiving the gifts is the fact that you are bleeding - not because of some sexist or cleanliness issue.
So.... If you fall and scrape your leg and it is not healed over or if a man cuts himself shaving or if you get a nosebleed.... same exact concern.
You are being deified at that moment. Your whole body and self is being sanctified. If you then subsequently fall down in the parking lot and get a cut, you should carefully clean up the blood and burn it - not flush it or put it in the trash. If you are already in a state where that is likely to happen - say chronic nosebleeds in an Arizona summer - then you should not create a problem for yourself.
Girls, do you take communion while you're on your period? Why or why not?
I've heard arguements for and against this. When I first became Orthodox (via the OCA), we were taught that technically women should not receive communion when they are on their period due to a tradition (some say "custom") that revolved around cleanliness. The Old Testament is against it a women even entering a the sanctuary after giving birth for this very reason (Leviticus 12).
In the very next breath, he told us that he would never turn someone away from the blessed Sacrament for this reason. To this day, I follow his advice myself and do not turn women away if they are on their period. It's not really practical to enforce either...not exactly a question I ask before administering communion.
I will be talking with my spiritual father about this the next time i see him. I want to know what he has to say. However, the reason why i asked this question in the first place was because i read this:
" Cannon 2 of St. Dionysios, but also Canon 7 of Timothy, orders women during their menses not to touch the holy things for up to seven days. The Old Law also commands this, but neither did it permit them to mingle with men, for because of this it happens that the seeds sown become weak and prone to die. Hence the divine Moses also ordered the father to be stoned to death, because on account of his lack of self control he did not wait for the purification of his wife. It was ordered that a women who is disrespectful and touches the divine Mysteries during the time of her impurity is not to commune for forty days."
Girls, do you take communion while you're on your period? Why or why not?
. The anicent Jews didn't have products that we do today that take care of this issue. As such for general health reasons, after all wandering around in the desert it's not like you could take a bath every day, a degree of separation was a good idea.
Thanks, Monica, for your wonderful contribution to this thread.I agree with Aria. You should really ask your priest about this. If it is the custom of your jurisdiction to refrain, perhaps you shouldn't scandalize anyone by partaking every Sunday of the year out of charity. If it is not the custom, then follow the advice of your SF.
On the issue of blood, menstrual blood is NOT like a cut. A woman's body stores this material for 2 weeks BEFORE the first day of a woman's period. If she did not want the Eucharist to be contained in that matter , she would have to refrain during the two weeks while the lining of her uterus was building, not during her actual period. By the time the flow has begun that tissue is no longer being supported by her body and is receiving no new blood.
Besides that, Mary was deified by conceiving Christ in her fertile womb. Think about it: the same matter that would have been expelled from her body, supported Christ in her womb. The matter itself is NOT unclean.
M.
It sounds like a great idea to talk about it with your Spiritual Father...that's what he gets paid the big buck for (joking, of course). The Canons can be complicated, but I'm sure he'll give you great advice on what is best for you.
Shall we get this thread closed? How do we do that?
Oh, that's easy, just start talking about tollhouses.
Wow, menses causes diseases? So like, if I'm around a woman who's not wearing pad or a tampon I could catch something?
Cause that's what's implied in this post.