Preparation of priests for Divine Communion

Contents First Preparation Second Preparation Third Preparation Humble Demetrius, by the grace of God, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, to the honorable priests of all cities and all our flock - blessing and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ. My office and the Divine Scripture command me not to remain silent, but to exhort you, brethren, with prayers and intimidation, so that you abide in your calling, as befits it, for the Apostle Paul says this to Timothy in Conception 297: “Preach the word, be persistent in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching” ( 2 Tim. 4:2). Even in the prophecies of Ezekiel in chapters 3 and 33, it is written how the Lord Himself spoke to His prophet: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you will listen to the word from My mouth, and you will admonish them from Me. When I say to the wicked man, “O sinner, you will die, and you will not admonish him and speak to warn the wicked man from his evil ways so that he may live, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hands.” But if you admonish the wicked, and he does not listen to you and does not turn from his iniquity and from his evil way, then he will die in his iniquity, and you will save your soul” (Ezek. 3:17-19, 33:7-9). I, a sinner, am afraid of these words of God in the Holy Scriptures, and I offer you this small admonition for your correction, for I see that many of you require correction. Either through ignorance, or through the negligence of inexperienced and careless priests, such great harm occurred that even with great difficulty it can hardly be healed. About this I am sick in my heart, for zeal for the house of God consumes me and fear overcomes me, obligated to give a word about you to God Himself, I am afraid that God will be angry with me for your negligence. That is why now, out of our humility, we offer you in brief the following covenants about some of the most necessary and important things. First of all, I will say something about the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ, in which, under the guise of bread and wine, the true Body and Blood of Christ appear and which are kept for the sick for a whole year. May they be observed in due Divine honor and above all shrines, for this is the true Christ Himself, born of the Most Pure Virgin, who suffered for us, who was resurrected, who ascended into heaven, who sits at the right hand of God the Father, the One who will come to judge the living and the dead and to reward each according to his deeds. I have seen that in many churches there is disrespect for the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ, and even more than that, they are humiliated. Such a great shrine is not kept in its proper place, but somewhere in a corner, and sometimes in the house, without any respect and in unclean, blackened vessels. But what is even worse, many do not even know an honest name for them, for they do not call them the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ, that is, the Body of Christ, but some simple or, rather, dishonest name “reserve”. Arriving last year in 1702 in the city of Yaroslavl, we happened to go into a church, where after the usual prayer, I, humble, wanted to give the usual honor and worship to the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ, and therefore asked the local priest: “Where are the Life-giving Mysteries of Christ?” But that priest did not understand my words and stood silently, wondering what was the matter. Then I also asked: “Where is the Body of Christ?” But the priest could not understand even this word. And only when one of the experienced priests who was with me said to him: “Where is the supply?”, he took a very vile vessel from the corner and showed in it a carelessly kept shrine, which even the Angels look at with fear. I was extremely upset in my heart that the Body of Christ was kept in such disrespect, and that the priests did not even know the name worthy and fitting of the Most Pure Mysteries. Be amazed at that, heaven and earth will be horrified at the ends! Oh, damned priests! If you yourself do not know Christ God, who appears in His Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries, if you have neither faith nor love for Him and do not give Him due veneration, then how can you teach ordinary people the true knowledge of God? Woe to you, blind leaders who lead the blind! Therefore, with the authority given to us by God, we command and threaten the Last Judgment, so that the priests always honor with Divine veneration and worship the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ, that is, the Body of Christ, preserved all year long for the sick. Let these Holy Mysteries be kept in a clean vessel and, if possible, in a silver, gilded vessel. If, due to poverty, it is impossible to have a silver, gilded vessel, then you can store it in some other one, but only in a clean one, and you need to keep it not in a corner somewhere, but always on the holy throne, as David says: “God sits on His holy throne” (Ps. 46:9). Entering the altar, the priest must bow to the Holy Mysteries of Christ located on the throne, must bow to the ground, as if to the true God Himself. Let the same happen to everyone who enters the altar. In addition, the priest must instruct people who go to church so that they first of all worship the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ, in which Christ Himself, the true God, is present. Let the priest not keep the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ in the house among bedbugs, cockroaches and crickets, where he and his household live and rest, but let them keep them in the holy church and in no other place than on the throne. If any priest, either due to the distance of his house from the church, or for any other reason (for example, during a harsh winter), is forced to keep them in his house so as not to delay with the sick, then let him keep them in a special room in a worthy place and in a clean vessel, and in general with all God-like reverence, because in them is the Lord Himself, Christ God, in whom we believe and whom we worship. Entering that room, one must bow to the ground to the Holy Mysteries, thereby giving honor to Christ God. Let the priests not call the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ with this simple word “reserve”, for because of this name, extremely simple priests do not know that in the Most Pure Mysteries there is the True Christ God Himself, they do not know that the Body of Christ should be called the Body of Christ, they do not honor it as the Body of Christ, they treat it like simple bread, without any fear, and do not care at all about such a great shrine, which more honest and higher than all other church shrines, for Christ is the Head of the entire Church. Let those who are ignorant, at least from the name of the honest and befitting Body of Christ, begin to recognize that in the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries there is the true Christ God Himself, and, having come to know Him, begin to render due veneration to Him, who appears under the guise of bread and wine. So, let the simple name “reserve” be left and the path of the Body of Christ be called precisely the Body of Christ or some other, but worthy name. As for other veneration that all priests should show to the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ, let every priest look at the Great Kiev Trebnik, in the 1st part, page 266 and further. Let him read more often, and teach himself, and teach others. If, by any chance or due to the negligence of the priest, rotting or corruption of the Divine Mysteries of Christ begins to occur, that is, the Lamb kept for a whole year, which is the Body of Christ, then it is necessary to sanctify and dry another Lamb, and consume the rotten one during the divine service. For this instruction, see the Great Kiev Trebnik, in the 1st part, page 260 and further. The Holy Lamb is dried by being crushed into small pieces. For information on how to dry, see the instructions in the Great Kiev Trebnik, part 1, page 264. Regarding how to give communion to a sick person, look in the same Kiev Trebnik, in the 1st part, page 324 and further, where it is written that the Holy Mysteries for communion should be dissolved with church wine, and not just with water. Let the priests visit the kept Divine Secrets and often inspect them to see if they have suffered any damage, that is, rotting. One must visit them with due respect: having bowed to the ground, with his head uncovered and having washed his hands, let him, having opened it, look into the vessel to see if there is any damage. This needs to be done often, say, once every three days or a week. If, through the priest’s oversight, they decay, then the priest, as the destroyer of the Divine Mysteries, will fall into grave mortal sin and will be subject to the punishment of eruption for this. Let the sextons enter the holy altar with fear and reverence to perform their service. When entering, let them bow to the ground to the holy throne, on which Christ Himself rests His Body in the Divine Mysteries, and the Angel of God stands here invisibly, guarding the shrine. The holy altar and the entire church, as the chamber of the Heavenly King, must be clean and often cleaned and swept away from cobwebs and litter. In divine services, let the proskomedia not be performed before the candle on the holy altar is lit, just as the beginning of the Holy Liturgy itself, that is, “Blessed is the Kingdom,” should not be said before the candle is lit at the holy altar. After all, a lit candle is a mysterious sign of the influx of the Holy Spirit in the fire, just as the burning of incense is a sign of the influx of the Holy Spirit in a cloud. If in front of holy icons we, out of our zeal, light many candles, then even more so with special zeal we must light them at the beginning of the service at the throne of God before His most pure Mysteries, where Christ Himself, surrounded by angelic ranks, rests His Body under the guise of bread and wine. If any priest, by chance or by the action of the devil, or by his own will, falls into any mortal sin, let him not dare to celebrate the Liturgy until he cleanses his sin by repentance, for he who celebrates the Liturgy in mortal sin greatly angers God. Saint John Chrysostom says this in his conversations on the Gospel of Matthew, in the first part, on page 483: “Nothing angers God so much as through unworthy sacred rites.” That priest who unworthily serves the Holy Liturgy brings the wrath of God not only upon himself alone, but also upon the whole people, for if the shepherd sins gravely, then many sheep suffer evil, just as unexpected mortal destruction came upon the people of Israel for the sin of David. A priest who is in anger and enmity, as well as in any other mortal sin (for anger is a grave mortal sin), should not dare to perform the service until he destroys the enmity through reconciliation and cleanses the mortal sin by repentance. Even if any priest does not have any mortal sin on his conscience, he must often go to his spiritual father to bring his repentance and confession to God, for even if someone, by the grace of God, can keep himself from any mortal sin, then no one can save himself from small sins in word, deed and thought, for they happen accidentally and unconsciously. David says: “Who understands the Fall?” (Ps.18, 13). Many do not count small sins as sins, but even small sins, if they multiply, can also burden the conscience and destroy the human soul, just like one mortal sin, in the likeness of sand and stone. Just as one large stone, tied to a person’s neck, will plunge him into water, so sand, although small in itself, but if a full bag is filled with it and tied to a person’s neck, will also plunge a person into the abyss, just like a large stone. This is how one should look at small but multiplying sins. And since the priest must often perform the Liturgy and partake of the Divine Mysteries, it is appropriate for him to often confess even his small sins in order to be able to worthily enter into communion with Christ. Also, let the priest teach and encourage the people of his flock to frequent confession of sins, so that by frequent repentance they may purify their souls, for a soul that is not purified by frequent repentance is alien to God and cannot receive salvation. Let all priests command their wives to partake of the Most Pure Divine Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ during all holy fasts four times a year, for a priest who often celebrates the Liturgy and receives communion, but has a wife who never receives communion, is defiled by her, as from an unfaithful, godless person, as from a dead corpse, when he has conjugal communion with her. Any person who does not frequently partake of the Body and Blood of Christ will not have a part with Christ, but will be imputed with the unfaithful and godless and will be like a dead corpse, for the Lord Himself says in the Gospel: “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you” (John 6:53). Likewise, the priest must urge his children and all his household to receive frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries, so that in the priestly home there will be no one who is alien to Christ and hostile to God, for he who is alien to Holy Communion is alien to Christ God, and he who is alien to Christ God is an enemy to Him. Anyone who does not at least once want to be with Christ God accepts a part with Satan and remains an enemy to God. In addition, the priest and all the people of his flock should encourage frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries and try in every possible way to lead them to this, firmly remembering that anyone who does not partake of Christ is not a Christian, that all such deeds, even good ones, are nothing before God, and that such a person has already perished during his lifetime. The priest will have to give an answer about the destruction of every soul on the Day of Judgment. Before the service, every priest must prepare himself for it in a manner worthy and worthy of holy service. Let him abstain from his wife for three or two days or, in case of extreme need, for one day, and on the night before the service, he should not at all dare to touch his wife or sleep with her on the same bed. If that night he touches his wife and then dares to serve, he will sin mortally and be guilty of God’s Last Judgment. In the Life of Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus (May 12), the following is written. This great bishop of God had from the Lord the grace that during the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice he was vouchsafed to see the influx of the Holy Spirit on the offered Holy Gifts, and never finished the prayer of offering without seeing the descent of the Divine Spirit. When he once served and performed the usual prayer of ascension, he did not see the sign of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Then, without finishing the prayer, he again began to read it from the beginning, but even then the Holy Spirit did not come. Having done this for the third time and marveling that he did not see the Holy Spirit, he began to cry and pray with his mind to God to inform him why the offered Gifts were being deprived of the Holy Spirit. Looking at the deacon, standing on the left side and holding the ripida, he saw that his face was black, vile, and that he had leprosy on his forehead. Then he took the ripida from him and with meekness said to him: “Do not now receive the Communion of the Divine Gifts, but go to your house.” When that deacon retreated from the Divine altar, Epiphanius immediately saw the Grace of the Holy Spirit descending on the offered Gifts. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the saint, calling the deacon, asked him: “What was the sin that prevented the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Honest Gifts?” He frankly admitted that last night he and his girlfriend were in marital union. Then Saint Epiphanius, having called all the presbyters, deacons and all his clergy, said to them: “If any of you, my children, are worthy of altar service, take off the boots of carnal, wordless passions, do not approach the Divine altar bound by voluptuous lusts, follow what the holy Apostle says: “They who have wives should be as if they have not” ( 1 Cor. 7:29). Also in the Book of Tobiah, chapter 6, it is written like this: “The angel Raphael says to young Tobiah: “Listen to me, and I will show you those over whom the demon has power. These are those who get married in order to drive God away from themselves and from their minds, and who stand in their fornication “like a foolish horse and donkey” (Ps. 31:9) - the demon has power over them.” Here, let every priest heed the following: if intemperate marriage is imputed to an uninitiated person as a sin and he falls under demonic power, then the greater sin will be for the initiate if he, without self-control and the fear of God, lives in fornication, like a foolish horse and donkey. Such a person is unworthy of Divine service, as it is read in the Cherubic prayer: none of those who have bound themselves with carnal lusts and passions is worthy to come or approach or serve You, the King of glory. So, it is appropriate for a lay priest, as well as a deacon, to abstain in every possible way from carnal marital union before worship. In the Book of Exodus, in chapter 19, it is written that the people of Israel who wanted to approach God’s Mount Sinai were commanded to wash their clothes and not enter their wives for three days (Exodus 19:3, 10, 15). Here, let each of the initiates heed the fact that if in the Old Testament simple and uninitiated people who wanted to approach Mount Sinai were commanded to abstain from their wives for three days, then all the more in the New Grace it is appropriate for a person who is not a simple person, but an initiate, to abstain from the female bed, both a priest and a deacon, and who wants to approach not the mountain, but the altar of God and the Terrible Sacrament. It is also written about David in the First Book of Samuel, in chapter 21: when he fled from Saul, he came to the priest Abimelech and asked him for bread. Abimelech answered: “I have no ordinary bread, but I have consecrated bread; if your people abstained from women, let them eat it. Then David answered the priest: We have been clean from women from the third day until today” (1 Samuel 21:4–5). And here let everyone heed the fact that if then it was not appropriate for anyone to eat the Old Law bread, which had only a certain small holiness and was not transubstantiated into the Body of Christ, before he had been prepared and had not been clean from his wife three days before, then even more so in the New Grace, let no one dare to approach the Divine Bread, transubstantiated into the Most Pure Body of Christ, if he is not clean from female intercourse for three days or, at most, two days. In the same way, after communion of the Divine Mysteries, everyone must abstain from his wife, so as not to offend the Holy Spirit within himself and not drive Him away from himself at that hour. At the beginning, before communion, let faith, hope and love precede. One must firmly believe that the true Body of Christ is precisely that which was conceived in the Virgin’s womb by the Holy Spirit and was born incomprehensibly, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father - this precisely, and not any other, is the Body of Christ and His Most Holy Blood. One must have hope that this is accepted for the healing of soul and body and for eternal life, but not for judgment or condemnation. It is necessary, as far as possible, to arouse in your heart love for the received Christ. If the groom, who wants to unite with his bride into one flesh, has warm love for her, then all the more warmly should he love the Lord Christ who wants to unite his spirit with the Lord. If someone does not love Him now, he cannot hope that he will be loved by Him in the future endless life forever. We should approach the Communion of the Most Pure Mysteries with fear, humility and honest reverence, remembering what we are about to begin. Let the communicant believe and firmly remember that the Body of Christ is united with his body and is transformed into it, and the Blood of Christ is united with his blood and is transformed into it, and also that he, the communicant of Christ, is one with the Body of Christ and the Blood and that all his members become not his, but Christ’s, according to the words of the Apostle, who says to the Ephesians: “We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.” (Eph. 5:30), and to the Corinthians: “You are the body of Christ, and individually members” (1 Cor. 12:27). In addition, his soul is united with the soul of Christ, the power of Christ is united with a weak person, and the whole of Christ is in him, just as he is all in Christ, illuminated by the grace of Christ. And then everyone, if only he receives communion worthily, becomes terrible for demons and unapproachable for all opposing forces. Let him also know that Christ abides in him only as long as he himself abides in Christ, without being separated from Him anywhere by his thoughts. If he begins to think about something bad, or to say absurd things, or to do unkind things, then Christ immediately departs from him, saying: “Behold, your house is left to you empty” (Luke 13:35). In the evening it is necessary to abstain from food and drink, especially on the entire day before the service, one should keep oneself sober, not overeat, not get drunk, not talk too much and be attentive to oneself. The mouth should be washed with clean water in the evening, and that night should not indulge in immeasurable sleep, but stay awake and guard oneself from such temptation. The morning rule and prayers for Communion should be performed with attention and tenderness, in the warmth of the spirit. From Matins to service, one should try in every possible way to maintain silence and not talk to anyone unless necessary. If it is impossible to maintain silence, then do not be eloquent, but say little and briefly what needs to be said. When starting to serve, it is necessary to be clean not only in soul, but also in body, have clean clothes on, hands well washed and nails freed from excess. You should approach with fear and great reverence in order to perform your service with faith and love, having all your thoughts collected, and not scattered and scattered everywhere. It is necessary to focus all your mind on God, Whom he appeared to serve together with the Cherubim, invisibly present and co-serving, and to be like the Angel standing before the Throne of God and bringing warm prayers for the whole world. The priest's prayers of service should be read with great attention and with all reverence, firmly remembering that God invisibly accepts every word from his mouth, like some valuable beads. Here I remembered one terrible thing that the Rostov protopresbyter and protodeacon reported to us, and which they saw with their own eyes. In a certain church (I don’t remember the place and name) the priest served the Holy Liturgy without a book called the Missal, and without prayers appropriate for the service, saying only exclamations. When the protopresbyter and protodeacon, seeing this, asked him why he served without the Service Book and without prayers, the priest replied: “I have already read the service prayers at home.” Then they began to tell him that what he was doing was wrong, but he answered: “I learned this from the old priests,” and even named him by name from whom he learned it. O extreme madness and negligence of stupid priests, or better yet, scoffers of Christ! Oh, how great is God’s patience, for fire does not fall from on high on such priests and does not burn them alive in the same places where they perform the Liturgy or, truly speaking, scold Christ! So, beware and pay attention to yourselves, priests. Do not be imitators of such, so that the Lord does not suddenly strike you, so that you do not perish, soul and body, and receive the same fate as those who crucified Christ and mocked Him. No less than that, my heart also hurts that I learned about some priests (from a reliable report) that, having not sobered up from yesterday’s drunkenness, possessed by hops and not prepared for the service, they dare to perform the Liturgy, which is a temptation for people, and for such priests themselves prepares eternal destruction. Other evil-doers use foul language in the church and the holy altar, swear obscenely, and through this they make the house of God a den of thieves; and their destruction does not sleep, and the vengeance of God does not tarry over them. It is also necessary to ensure that the prosphora on which the priest must serve are made from real wheat, pure flour, and not from rye or any other kind. Also, the wine should be real grape, without any admixture. To dissolve the Holy Chalice, water should not be poured in excess, but not enough, so that the wine does not lose its wine taste and does not become watery. Prosphora should not be salty. To do this, you need to order the breadmaker so that when preparing the dough for the prosphora, she should put very little salt, just for the sake of church custom, but so that there is no saltiness in the prosphora, and that the leaven be ordinary. After communion, prayers of thanksgiving should be read with attention, not only speaking with your lips, but also with your heart moved, and with your mind understanding what is being read, for prayer without tenderness and attention is a censer clanking without fire and incense. After the service, the priest must maintain himself in sobriety, abstinence and laconicism, in order to honestly observe Christ who was received into himself on that day. The priest must take care of the salvation of human souls in every way, day and night, just as he does about his own soul, so that through his negligence the verbal sheep of Christ do not perish, for whom he will have to give an answer to Christ God on the Day of Judgment. On all Sundays and holidays, let the priest teach the people in church from the holy books, adding, if possible, useful advice from his own mind. Every priest must teach all the simple and unlearned people of his flock so that they know by heart the Jesus Prayer, “Heavenly King,” the Trisagion, “Our Father,” “I Believe in One God,” “Virgin Mother of God,” and “It is Worthy.” If one of the simplest cannot learn all this, then everyone, even the simplest Christian, both man and woman, boy and girl, should know at least the Jesus Prayer, “Our Father” and “Virgin Mother of God”. For this purpose, on all Sundays and holidays, after the Holy Liturgy and after reading the book teaching, let the priest command all the common people in the church, husbands, wives and children, so that they all repeat after him in one voice, while let him say each prayer separately, starting with the Jesus Prayer, then “To the Heavenly King,” the Trisagion, “Our Father,” and so on until “It is Worthy.” When they come of age, the priests must teach their sons according to the flesh to read and write with special diligence, so that they can read books and write well. In order for their children to understand the power of the read Divine Scripture, the priests must send them to the grammar school in Rostov, where, by order of the Great Sovereign, they teach without money and especially so that the priestly children will not be stupid when they are awarded the priesthood in place of their fathers, so that they will be able to teach the people in the church not only by reading books, but also by oral instruction in the word of God. I have proposed all this, priests, in brief so that, leaving behind your negligence and ignorance, you begin to understand the path befitting your calling and correct your own faults. Accept this with love, as the prophet David exhorts you: “Accept,” he said, “punishment, lest the Lord be angry, and you perish from the path of righteousness, when His wrath is soon kindled” (Ps. 2:12). If you lovingly accept the admonition given to you by our humility and fulfill it with zeal, then you will receive God’s mercy and our blessing will rest on you. If, without fearing God, you neglect and reject my words, if you are careless about the salvation of yours and the souls entrusted to you, then you will accept the terrible Judgment of God and eternal execution, but I will be clean from your destruction, from which may Christ our God deliver you through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints. Amen.