Communion

Today is the first Sunday of the month and our church usually has communion during our worship service.

What type of communion do you/your church serve? What are your views of the true presence of Jesus in the eliments? Do you fast before your communion?

Do you have any other thoughts about communion. (I'll answer all my own questions later today )

traditional hosts, blood and body of Christ.

He is present in the hosts, for me no question.

The Church calls it fasting, but to me it's just not eating till afterwards.

FlatpickingJD said:

traditional hosts, blood and body of Christ.

He is present in the hosts, for me no question.

The Church calls it fasting, but to me it's just not eating till afterwards.

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Funny thing happened this morning. I didn't eat breakfast as usual on communion Sunday. My stomach was growling so loudly my Mom asked me if I was hungry.

MMXII said:

Today is the first Sunday of the month and our church usually has communion during our worship service.

What type of communion do you/your church serve? What are your views of the true presence of Jesus in the eliments? Do you fast before your communion?

Do you have any other thoughts about communion. (I'll answer all my own questions later today )

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We call "communion" the Eucharist. We have it every Sunday.

We fast from midnight Saturday (or when we go to bed Saturday night) from all food and all water. (Some of us brush our teeth but do so in a way to prevent swallowing the water.)

The Eucharist is a challace of wine thinned with hot water and specially made bread. The bread is made in batches because the person (or people) making the bread have to fast before making it and say prayers during the making of the bread.

The bread is cut by the Priest using a "spear" (it looks like a miniture spear for real) which reminds one of the spear that pierced the side of Christ on the Cross. The pieces of the bread are put into the challace with the wine and we are given the Eucharist on a spoon by the Priest. Only a Priest can give the Eucharist and he uses our Christian name as he puts the spoon into our mouths.

After we receive the Eucharist there is a table next to the Priest with dixey cups of watered down wine that we drink to make sure that there are no parts of the Eucharist still in our mouths. We also have some "blessed bread" Which is the same bread made for the Eucharist but this is a part that does not go through the change... it is cut of from the rest of the bread... We eat a piece of this bread as well to make sure we have no parts of the Eucharist in our mouths.

Those who do not receive the Eucharist (who did not fast or say the special prayers we recite privately the night before Service and again in the morning before leaving for church... these prayers must be recited to receive the Eucharist... but the fasting can be skipped for health reasons if needed... the prayers take about 90 mins to say but I break mine up into two 45 mins of prayer).

Anyway, those who have not prayed or fasted or have gone too long between confession, or those who are not Eastern Orthodox, they can eat the blessed bread. It is a tradition in my parish for those who are receiving the Eucharist to take some pieced of the bread in our hand and give them to others who did not receive the Eucharist as a sign of fellowship and love.

My church is small, about 30 adults typically. Children start receiving the Eucharist 40 days after birth (immediately after their baptism). So with children and adults we have about 20 people receiving the Eucharist each week. It takes about 10 minutes. We make it go faster by having the kids and the elderly start to line up before the Priest comes out of the altar to start the Eucharist.

We also have special prayers that we recite in Thanksgiving for receiving the Eucharist. We have a tradition in my parish of a laymember reading or chanting (their choice) these prayers and those who receive stay and pray them as a group while the rest go down to the fellowship hall.

(BTW. since most of us have fasted so long, we have a meal at church. I have to say that the very best seasoning for food is hunger!)

tg, thank you so much for your response. I love learning how the body takes communion.

I'll probably be condemned as a heretic for saying this but, here goes anyway...

I believe that comunion the way it is practiced today is not what Jesus had in mind when he said: "Do this in remembrance of me." The "this" he was referring to was not a few crumbs of bread and a thimble-full of wine but a full meal. And it was no ordinary meal either. It was the Passover meal - the biggest meal of the year. Everything about the Passover meal forshaddowed Christ's passion, death and ressurection. He was showing His disciples that meaning. He was telling them not to perform some ritual but to celebrate Passover but, not to celebrate it in remembrance of what had happened in Egypt 1400 years or so earlier but, in remembrance of what he was about to do for them.

But he was saying more too.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." (I Corinthians 11:23-24)

The blessing Jesus said was the same as the one said at every Jewish meal that included bread to this day.

Blessed are you, Lord, our God, king of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth.

When he added "This is my body", he was saying that God would bring forth his body from the earth. He was prophesying his own ressurrection. He was also telling us that whenever we eat bread and say that blessing, we should remember that it's true significance is not that God gives us food (which He does) but that He raised Jesus from the dead.

There's a lot more sybolism to be found in the Passover meal but it's to long to get into here. Comunion the way we know it doesn't even come close to what Jesus did or told us to do that night.

*Theofilus puts on his asbestos suit and prepares to be burned at the stake.

*MMXII puts flamethrower away.

Thanks Theo. I appreciate your thoughts. We've talked about this before. We do tend to forget that it was a Passover meal but more.

When I have communion I fast that morning's breakfast so when I get Jesus in my belly it's the only thing there. Do I believe in true presence...I'm not so sure either way.

FlatpickingJD said:

Theofilus, we love you and respect you and no one here will burn you at the stake because of what you believe. And if anyone tries, I'll fight on your side.

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Me too.

Amen Theo!

I know my beliefs are not always the most commonly accepted ones (that's putting it mildly). Thank you for not burning me at the stake.

We had communion at our church this Sunday too. It's the regular communion with bread and grape juice. We also collect for the benevolent fund and bring food items for our food bank. It is also a time of sharing for the congregation if anyone has something on their heart.

I agree with Theo(no burning from me either brother!

) that our modern day communion resembles little of what Christ did on the day before he was betrayed, but I also know, that God sees my heart in all of this and that pleases him more than getting stuck on doing it in a specific way or manner. As I delve deeper into my Jewish heritage, I see things a little differently, but one thing that hasn't changed is that I am living my faith for an audience of one and where my heart is, matters more to God than if I am doing something in the "right" way.

I love the scripture "I desire mercy not sacrifice and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" Hos 6:6

Thornygrace - what you described is beautiful, thank you for sharing - it brought tears to my eyes.

Thanks to each of you who shared. This is fascinating and enlightening.