"TAKE AND EAT ..."

Every Sunday, our Holy Orthodox Church offers us a remarkable spiritual experience: the Divine Liturgy. Week after week, we find ourselves surrounded by God's saints depicted in our parish's iconography as we listen to the Word of God and join in with the singing of our sacred hymns. As awesome as all of this is, it is greatly overshadowed by the most important aspect of the Divine Liturgy: the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. At every Divine Liturgy, we are invited to “come forward with faith and with love” and partake of this Sacrament for the healing of our soul and body, for the remission of our sins and for life everlasting.

Christ Himself instituted the Divine, Life-creating Mystery of Holy Communion at the Last Supper. That fateful evening, He broke bread and offered it to His Apostles, saying: “Take and eat, this is My Body which is broken for you ...” and gave them the cup saying: “All of you drink of this, this is My Blood of the New Testament ...” At last, the Apostles understood what their Master meant when He taught that “unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53) Far from being a mere symbolic gesture, our Holy Orthodox Church instructs us that at every Divine Liturgy, we find ourselves RELIVING the Mystical Supper as bread and wine is miraculously transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit.

The importance of the frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist should not be lost on us. Our Lord tells us plainly that eternal life is found through Holy Communion. May all Orthodox Christians respond positively to our Lord's offer to be united with Him in this most special way.

Orthodox Weekly Bulletin . . . . . . . Vestal, Cliffwood, New Jersey . . . . . . . Litho in U.S.A.