Reception of the Eucharist

[Gregory DePardo]

My question concerns the reception of the Eucharist within more "traditional" Churches such as ROCOR, GOC, ROAC, ROCiE, etc...

I am under the impression that all of the Churches listed above use the same guidelines for reception. For instance, confession before each reception, attendance at Vigil a must, certain number of canons must be read, etc.

When did this practice develop? What are the earlist writings pertaining to this Eucharistic piety?

From my point of view (and my point of view is not always correct!), confession before each reception is a too much. My reasons for saying this are as follows:

1) At Liturgy, the Church invites us to partake of the Eucharist for our spiritual nourishment within the community setting. The Eucharist is offered each Sunday. Therefore, shouldn't we partake of the Eucharist each Sunday with our fellow believers?

2) Because we receive each week, it should also mean that we lead serious and pious Christian lives. In other words, we attend Vigil out of love (not just so we can receive Communion Sunday morning), we say our morning and evening prayers faithfully, we go to confession at least once a month. Because we receive the Eucharist each Sunday, we are strengthened to live this life of piety.

3) Shouldn't we always be ready to receive the Eucharist? Aside from saying Communion prayers and perhaps attending Vigil, we should be spiritually ready to partake of the Eucharist. If we are not, shouldn't we try to get to confession as soon as possible?

Let's say one does not receive the Eucharist on Sunday morning because one has not gone to confession the night before. Is it because one feels that partaking of the Eucharist would lead to condemnation? What if you were too die that Sunday?

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Orthodox Church in America. Confession before each reception is not "required".

Many thanks for your replies.

In Christ,
Gregory

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Dear Gregory,

Christ is Risen! Indeed he is Risen!

This are certainly excellent questions which I will try to answer.

I am a priest in ROCOR and I can only speak certainly about ROCOR's practices regarding reception of the Mysteries. I am not sure that the Churches you list do follow the same guidelines.

We follow what you would call 'regular confession'. That is we do ask that those who wish to receive attend Vigil, read the 'rule before Communion', properly fast beforehand (includuing refraining from physical relations the night before reception). But this is not absolute. For instance if a person regularly confesses & receives he/she may perhaps forego confession (one often sees this in Holy Week when the faithful receive of the Mysteries on a number of consecutive days). As far as attending the Vigil, doing the fast, & reading the rule, this also varies for instance if one is sick, elderly or working. In a word from what I have seen all of this must be gauged according to actual state of the person appraoching the Sacrament. It can be quite harmful to see preparation in an absolute way.

Nevertheless we do stress a serious preparation and would not allow someone to receive 'just as they are'. While I do not know the history concerning preparation for Communion it is obviously Scriptural & ancient (and varying in practice)in a general way. Ultimately it is rooted in the sacredness of the Sacrament itself, of a recognition of the meaning of this Sacrament and of a proper relationship to this. All of this is witnessed to directly or implied in the Gospels and Epistles.

A short note that might be helpful is to point out that our entire relationship with Christ is to be based on repentance and also a life in His image (ie: humility, self-denial, asceticism, etc). This is what prepartion means at its essence so that we may be receiving unto our salvation.

Now for your other questions: 1)the community is the Church; the Church is the Community of Believers grafted into the True Vine of Christ. So belief and a Christ-like life are what define whether we are truly in the Community. In this sense we should all live a worthy Orthodox life & all receive.

2)this is completely proper.

3)what you say here also is proper; we must check our conscience: have we prepared properly? But this may be all very subjective and not of much use if we do not follow the guidelines already set out for us by our priest and/or spiritual father.

Each parish, & indeed person has his/her or her own 'rule' that is anchored in humble obedience.

Keeping all of the above in mind one normally would not feel oneself suffiently prepared if one had not suffiently prepared. Note that the preparation has nothing to do with making onself 'worthy' of receiving. Rather one prepares in order to recognise and acknowledge one's very UNworthiness. Thus in the last prayer before we receive- "But like the thief do I acknowledge Thee." At its essence I believe that preparation is so that we may receive with hearts & minds 'not of this world' to the extent this is possible for us.

About dying not having received. If one is concerned about one's death this is the very thing that drives one to confess and receive with compunction. In my experience (shared by most priests) a person who has death immediately before them often repents, confesses and receives with tears in an extremely moving way. This is because a proper reception of the Mysteries and a worthy standing before Christ upon death are so intimately connected.

Now if one was to really die suddenly without Communion this could very well not be unto their condemnation. Many martyrs after all endured this. St Seraphim of Sarov said that for those who die worthily without Communion the angels will bring them communion mystically.

In closing regarding your disclaimer; I having many friends -priest & laity- in the OCA (and in other jurisdictions) deeply believe we are all much closer on this issue nowadays.

In the love of the Risen Christ- Fr Raphael

PS: the hierarch who ordained me is your present Metropolitan Herman whom I still admire, love & respect.

[Marie-Duquette]

Greg,
Christ is Risen! I personally sympathize with you on this matter. When I first became Orthodox, I was refused the Eucharist even though I had complied to the regulation to confess before every reception of the Eucharist.
And, when in France, when I attented Holy Liturgy at Rue Petel, where I didn't realize that I was to receive confession before each reception of the eucharist, The Priest actually left the Holy Table and came down to confess me, after the Deacon had approached me to ask if I was to receive Holy Communion. This was done three days in a row. On the fourth Day, on a Holy Day, I just got in line with everyone else to confess.

This, at the time disturbed me a lot, for as a Roman Catholic I had been very faithful to the reception of the Sacraments, both Confession and Eucharist: weekly and even a few times a week for years, and years, and years...We are truly never really ready totally to receive the Body and Blood of Christ! But, at times, I also think that too much emphasis is placed on the ritualistic reception of Confession in preparation for the Reception of Holy Eucharist.

Christ Jesus, during His life was so accepting of all stangers, foreigners, Samaritains, Cananites, women, sinners, the sick and ailing...."have Faith and sin no more" he would say! but, as humans we are all weak, and fall often -- not necessarily mortally, but in many ways that are caused by our ignorance, sinfulness, etc.

The Mercy of our God is ever flowing from His Divine Person, united with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Often I think that with all that emphasis on our sinfulness, we are at times forgetting that we are called to an intimate relationship with God-indwelling our souls.

Lord Jesus Christ teach me to follow You with a humble and contrite heart; and to constantly learn from You, as You are the Holy Word of God incarnate in Eucharist and Word.

marie duquette

please forgive me a sinner.

[Alex Haig]

One can take a slightly different view of confession and receiving the Holy Gifts (this does not negate the importance of going to confession regularly though!). One should go to the Liturgy as much as possible, at least every week*: there receive communion. If one does not receive communion there is obviously a reason for not receiving so go to confession in order to rejoin oneself to the Church so that communion may be received.

With love in Christ

Alex

* Obviously this isn't possible for some people. However there is actually a Canon (I forget from which Council) that if you miss 3 Sundays in a row then you should be ex-communicated (or if a Priest, de-frocked). Before I get tonnes of replies complaining I am well aware that there are many Canons which are not kept to, but I thought I'd just throw that one in.

[matt]

REgarding Alex's #16,
I just want to throw it out there that not everyone's sacramental rythem is the same. That might sound lame or unorthodox to many, but it isn't 'requiered', for lack of a better word, that an orthodox in good standing receive the eucharist each sunday. That they should be in the temple is a given for nearly everyone.

[matt]

And also about confession, it isn't just to put us right with the Father in CHrist's body, the church. It has been reduced to that in some instances, and it certainly does do so in all instances, but I go to confession to open my mind up to the head of the community for more than just the forgiveness of sins or for a penance. Like all sacraments, it has the negative (removal of sins, etc) and the positive (the growth and healing). Two sides of the same coin, but either may be the motivation, which makes it distinguishable from its current ususal connection to the eucharist or chrismation. It can stand on its own, even if the sins are relatively minor and something of a side issue. Please don't take this to be liberal. I mean the total opposite and if this post seems totally irrelevant, just disregard and skip it.

Two cents,
matt

[Melissa]

Dear Matt,

Are you saying that it's just the motivation that gets you (potentially any of us) to confession that's different - sometimes the prime motivator may be a felt need for forgiveness, and sometimes the prime motivator might be growth and healing (and a slightly lesser although still present awareness of particular sins)?

I've noticed that when I talk to Fr. about issues that trouble me or things I don't understand about the church, it may lead to a confession, because I become aware of a sin/sins I hadn't considered or seen before, but I've thought of them as separate experiences.

I didn't grow up in a church that practiced individual confession, so the whole thing was intimidating to me at first, and I'm not sure how well I understand the details. But I've been taught that it's through the forgiveness I receive that growth and healing occur, as regards confession.

If I've misunderstood you or confused things more, please set me straight!

In Christ,
Melissa

[matt]

Melissa,
Thanks for your reply. I would say a few things that might clarify my post. First, it is obedience to Christ, in his body the Church, that “gets me to confession” regardless of my motivation. I may not even want to go, and so am in some way unmotivated. But laying aside that part of my will I know that it is essential for me to be accountable to someone other than myself, especially when I have the head of the community, the priest, available.

That said, I would want to distinguish between confession as a confession of sins and confession as the opening of the heart. (In Greek the term is, I think, exomologesis. That is a poor transliteration, so who know if it is correct.) This second aspect of confession is broader than the first in that looks beyond the sins into the context of one’s life- both good and bad. You may say that it is a false distinction. I believe the literature on the subject actually does bear out what I am saying. And of course I do not believe that things that can be distinguished logically can exist separately, something Louis Dupré has suggested as the hallmark of modernity. (This goes for so much of our theology!) You may see here that category two may not fit into confession before the icon after the vespers on Saturday, but my point is that category one is often the only category that we reference when we speak or think of confession. You may find a lecture by Fr Thomas Hopko useful in this regard. It is sometimes available from St Vlad’s and he covers the history and practice of confession as it has developed over the centuries, as well as the theology of the church about exomologesis (the second category) and what the therapeutic value and necessity is for opening one’s self up totally to at least one other person, preferably the priest, since we are now living in the age to come so to speak and what is whispered in the corner will be shouted from the rooftop and that in anticipation of the kingdom we open our hearts up totally already and then go on with the living to which God has called us.

I can’t set anyone straight, and I do not intend or want to, so my words are only here for help to some. If they are found useless, so be it. Our honesty, and seeking to be honest, before the priest is what leads to deeper and deeper healing of the sicknesses of our hearts which may have very little to do with our own culpability or personal sins. This is perhaps a segway into a discussion about original sin and guilt, who knows.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Matt