Слово в Великий четверток на литургии. О Святых Христовых Тайнах

“Bread will strengthen a person’s heart” (Ps. 103:15), the prophet prophesied about some wonderful bread, which, unlike ordinary material bread that strengthens the body, was supposed to strengthen the human heart. Our heart needs strengthening! It wavered terribly during our fall and cannot of itself stop from wavering. It is constantly shaken by various passions. In vain and in vain does fallen man, in his blindness, preach about the firmness of the human will. This firmness does not exist: the will is carried away by the violence of the sin that prevails over it. The miraculous bread that was foretold is needed, needed, to strengthen the wavering, weakened human heart 74 . What strengthens the human heart is “the bread that came down from heaven, the bread of life” (John 6:48, 58). This bread is our Lord Jesus Christ. He said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: whoever eats of this bread will live forever. And the bread that I will give, which is my flesh, I will give for the life of the world. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:51, 56). What a wonderful establishment! It is natural for the human mind to become perplexed before a supernatural, incomprehensible establishment. People, darkened by carnal wisdom and unbelief, heard the establishment, did not want to receive an explanation from God about the Divine establishment, and pronounced their own judgment about the Divine establishment into condemnation and destruction for themselves. “This word is cruel,” they said, “who can listen to it? For this reason many of his disciples took the name of disciples in vain, turning back, and walking not with him” (John 6:60, 66). And now those who only bear the name of Christians, adhere to outward Christian customs, but in life and heart are alien to Christianity, are plagued with doubts about the great sacrament. It would be a cruel word if a person uttered it; obedience to the word would be impossible if the word were spoken by a person. The word was spoken by God, who, in His infinite goodness, accepted humanity for the salvation of people - and therefore the word must be filled with goodness. The Word was spoken by God, who accepted humanity for the salvation of people, and therefore attention to the word and judgment about it should not be superficial. Obedience to the word must be accepted by faith, with all the soul, just as God incarnate must be accepted. God's acceptance of humanity is incomprehensible to humans; The institutions and actions of the God-man are just as incomprehensible; they assimilate a man, conceived in iniquities and born in sins, a man doomed to eternal destruction and eternal languor in the prisons and abysses of hell, to God, make him a god by grace, and elevate him to heaven for eternal residence and eternal bliss in heaven. Those who condemned the word and institution of the God-man, who rejected the word and institution, condemned and rejected the Word - “Spirit and Life” (John 6:63), condemned and rejected the institution that is taught to the disciple of Christ, “Spirit and Life.” Amen, amen, I say to you, said the Lord, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will not have life within you” (John 6:53). “It is appropriate to learn,” says St. John Chrysostom, “the wonderful property and action of the Holy Mysteries: what are they? What are they devoted to? what is the use of them? We are one body with the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are “flesh of His flesh, bone of His bones” (Gen. 2:23). Secretly learned! listen to what is said: we are united with the all-holy flesh of the Lord not only through love, but also through the sacrament itself. The all-holy flesh of the Lord becomes our food! He gave us this food, wanting to show the love he has for us. He mixed himself with us, and kneaded His body into us, so that we would be united with Him, just as the body is united with the head: such is the property of ineffable love. Pretending to represent the Lord, Job told about his servants, with whom he was especially loved, that they, in explanation of their great love for him, said: “Who would allow us to be satisfied with his flesh?” ( Job 31:31 ). Christ brought this to us, leading us into the greatest love, and showing His love to us, giving those who wish not only to see Himself, but also to touch Himself, and to consume Himself and unite with Himself, and to fulfill every desire” 75 . The Lord, having replaced for us with Himself our forefather, Adam, from whom we are born into death, having become our ancestor, replaces the flesh and blood that we borrowed from Adam with His own flesh and blood. Such an action of the Lord, with pious contemplation of the redemption of men by the incarnation of God, while remaining incomprehensible and supernatural, at the same time becomes clear and natural. The obscene flesh and blood of the fallen and rejected nature must be replaced in the nature that the God-Man has renewed with the all-holy flesh and blood of the God-Man 76 . “The good, all-good and all-good God,” theologizes Saint John of Damascus, “being all goodness, according to the immeasurable riches of His goodness, did not suffer that goodness, that is, His nature, should remain alone, and no one should be a partaker of this nature” 77. This is the view of the human mind, illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit, on the actions of God; This is the explanation of God's actions by this mind; This is how this mind explains to itself the actions of God: the actions of God and the beginnings of God’s actions are precisely and with complete certainty comprehensible to God alone. The human mind, enlightened from Above, issues the following sacred broadcast 78. The favor of God took place so that all-perfect goodness, that is, the essence of God, would be reflected in other beings, just as the sun is reflected on the objects that it touches with its rays. For this purpose, God initially created spirits and the world in which they live, then the sensory world, and finally man, who by soul belongs to the created spirits, and by the body in which the soul is clothed belongs to the sensory world. God, being life, self-life, poured out life from himself into everything that lives and exists. The life of the world is a reflection in it of self-life - God. And spirits, and man, and all other creatures came out of the hands of the Creator perfect, perfect in relation to their limited nature, filled with whole goodness, without the slightest admixture of evil. The goodness in creatures, corresponding to their nature, was a reflection of the infinite goodness of the infinite Creator. The limited perfection of creatures was a reflection of the all-perfect perfection that constitutes the property of the one Creator. Spirits and man became the closest and clearest reflection of God among creatures. In their very being the Creator inscribed His image; He decorated this image with qualities similar to those qualities that, in their infinity and totality, constitute the essence of God. God is goodness: He also made rational creatures good. God is wisdom: He also made rational creatures wise. In a decisive shade of similarity, He gave His Holy Spirit to rational creatures - thereby uniting their spirit, their whole being with Himself. Evil came from the free will of rational creatures. It was the spirits who conceived evil within themselves and gave birth to it into negative existence. They communicated the poison of evil to the entire human race, infecting the root of the race - the forefather - with evil, seducing the forefather with the promise of a state equal to God. Here the goodness of God appears in its most amazing manifestation. In order to extract humanity from fall and destruction, the Trinitarian God accepts humanity as one of His Persons, renews man in Himself and by Himself, and thereby gives him a union with Himself, incomparably closer than what was granted at creation. The Son of God by nature, becoming human and becoming the ancestor of men, made them sons of God by grace. The bestial conception and birth, to which men submitted after the fall, are rejected: it is covered, so to speak, by the birth of the Holy Spirit at Baptism. Regenerated people are transformed from flesh into spirit, not by nature, by property: “what is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Christians, having been born from Adam into death, are born through Baptism into life, are born from God, and are already born as children of God (John 1:12–13). Their being is called “re-being” and is “re-being” (Matthew 19:28; Tit. 3:5); it is being into eternal life, a being completely different from what being into death was; it is a second being, given a second time after the loss of the first being through the fall, eternal death. The state of being again is given food appropriate to the state. Just as birth into rebirth is birth from the Holy Spirit, so the nutrition taught to a renewed person is prepared by the Holy Spirit. Nutrition is the flesh and blood of the God-man. “The flesh of the Lord is a life-giving Spirit,” said Saint John of Damascus, “since it was conceived from the life-giving Spirit; I say this without destroying (without rejecting) the nature of the body, but wanting to show all its Divinity and life-giving nature” 79. The God-man, being an all-perfect God, in appearance, for human bodily feelings, sealed by the fall, was only a man. Holy people, who through Baptism became children of God, became the spirit, preserved and developed adoption and spiritual state by living a godly life, remained for the outer human feelings, sealed by the fall, as ordinary people, no different from other people. The Holy Mysteries of Christ, being the body and blood of the God-Man, being the Spirit, preserve for the bodily senses the external appearance of bread and wine. And bread and wine are seen, and bread and wine are smelled, and bread and wine are touched, and bread and wine are tasted. The Holy Mysteries are revealed and revealed through their actions. This is how God, covered by humanity, was exposed: He was revealed and witnessed by His actions. This is how the saints of God, the vessels of the Spirit, were exposed: they were revealed and exposed by actions. The appearance is deeply humble, covered with simplicity, alien to sophistication, alien to effect - a supernatural, Divine action! By divine action the dignity of a wondrously humble appearance is exalted. Exactly! God humbled himself unspeakably by His incarnation and His earthly life: all His actions are unspeakably humble, unspeakably magnificent and majestic in their humility. This also applies to the Holy Mysteries. What could be more humble in appearance, more ordinary than the food offered to renewed people, that extraordinary, wonderful, terrible food in which the Holy Spirit is taught as food, in which the God-Man is taught as food? “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood,” He said, “... whoever eats me, he will live... forever” (John 6:56–57). “Those who partake of the most holy body and the most holy blood,” said the great father, “stand with angels, and archangels, and the heavenly powers, dressed in the very royal purple of Christ, girded with spiritual weapons. With this I have not yet said anything great: they are clothed in the King himself” 80. When establishing educational sacrifices, the consumption of meats cooked on fire was permitted, but the consumption of blood was prohibited. The reason for the prohibition is stated: “The life of all flesh is the blood thereof” (Lev. 17:11). When the New Testament Sacrifice was offered, represented by weak shadows - the Old Testament sacrifices; when the New Testament Sacrifice was brought by the Priest - the Lord, Who was both the Victim and the Priest, then another command came from God about sacrificial blood. “Drink of it, all of you,” the Lord commands everyone, calling everyone, “for this is my blood of the new testament” (Matthew 26:27–28). All are invited to drink the blood of Christ! The invitation is made for the same reason for which the prohibition is pronounced. In the blood of Christ is His soul. During the communion of the Holy Mysteries, the touch of the soul of Christ on the soul of the communicant, the union of the soul of Christ with the soul of the communicant is clearly felt. Without words, without instruction in words, the soul begins to feel in itself its tranquility, meekness, humility, love for everyone, coldness towards the corruptible and transitory, sympathy for the future age, alien to its fallen nature. These sensations are evoked, implanted into the soul from the soul of Christ, as He said: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). “Learn not from an Angel, not from a person, not from a book, learn from Me,” says Saint John Climacus, explaining the words of the Savior, “from My assimilation to you, from My radiance and action in you, that I am meek and humble in heart, and in thought, and in the way of thinking, and you will find peace from the internal struggle, relief to your soul from the burden and confusion caused to it by thoughts brought from areas of fallen spirits" 81 . This is the effect of the Holy Mysteries: they, acting on us, together act on our invisible and vigilant enemies, on demons, protecting from them our vessel - a person who worthily contains them. Food, material in appearance, acceptable by the mouth, acts against spirits, fetters them as if in chains! A meal on which, by appearance, bread and wine are presented, fights with spirits, tramples them! “Thou hast prepared a table before me,” the prophet exclaimed in delight to God, pointing from a distance to the Christian altar, “Thou hast prepared a meal against those who are cold against me!” (Ps. 23:5) 82. This effect of the Holy Mysteries is especially known to monks who lead a silent life and are subject to an increased invasion of demonic thoughts. “They are burning,” the Venerable Pimen the Great expressed himself, speaking from his own experience, “from the poison of evil demons, and are eagerly awaiting Saturday and the weekday in order to come to the sources of living water - to the body and blood of the Lord - with them to be cleansed of the bitterness that the enemy gave them to drink” 83. And fallen spirits know the power of the Holy Mysteries. They tremble at her, hate her, envy those who receive communion, envy with the envy of which demons are capable. Often with frenzy they attack the person preparing for communion, plunder his thoughts, instill coldness and bitterness in his heart, bring heavy sinful memories and dreams, try to desecrate the conscience, lead the Christian into bewilderment, and prevent communion; often after communion the spirits make a similar attack, again with the aim of plunging into bewilderment, confusion, in order to shake faith, to instill the idea that communion of the Holy Mysteries does not bring any benefit. This invisible warfare raised by the spirits of malice against those receiving communion serves as evidence of the greatest importance and benefit of the Holy Mysteries. Precious is the treasure that a person’s enemies are so keen to prevent a person from receiving! Precious is the treasure that a person’s enemies so furiously try to seize from him! Let us be strengthened by faith and courageously resist our adversaries. As we prepare to receive the Holy Mysteries, let us try to maintain all possible vigilance over ourselves; Let us try to maintain this vigilance over ourselves after receiving the Holy Mysteries. Let us not be afraid of the spiritual storm produced by the invasion of spirits! We will not allow despondency and embarrassment to take over us. The action of the Holy Mysteries will not fail to appear in the soul of a patient ascetic, just as the sun appears in the sky after it has been cleared of clouds. “My eye has looked upon my enemies” (Ps. 53:9), said Saint David after the disturbance they had caused in his soul had passed. The communicant of the Holy Mysteries will also make this confession about himself, having freed himself from the invasion of spirits, which the action of the Holy Mysteries will expose to him all the more clearly. Anyone who has received communion with attention and reverence, with due preparation, with faith, feels a change in himself, if not immediately after communion, then after some time has passed. A wonderful world descends on the mind and heart; the members of the body are clothed with tranquility; the seal of grace falls on the face; thoughts and feelings are connected by sacred, spiritual bonds that prohibit reckless freedom and ease and curb them. With a constantly pious and attentive life, the effect of the Holy Mysteries becomes clearer, more tangible, and more abundant. This action is likened by Scripture to anointing the head, that is, the mind, with spiritual oil, likened to a sovereign, royal cup, sovereignly intoxicating the soul with sensations emanating from the Holy Spirit, emanating from Christ. With a constantly attentive and pious life, the incomprehensible mercy of God, revealed to people in giving them heavenly food, becomes partly comprehensible. This “mercy of God will marry for salvation by its supernatural power the one who receives communion as often as possible, as worthily as possible, all the days of his earthly life, and will install him in the heavenly house of the Lord for the endless length of days” eternal (Ps. 23:5-6). Material bread is an image of heavenly bread, and wine is an image of true spiritual drink. The action of the material bread and wine serves as an image of the action of the body and blood of Christ 84. Bread, when consumed as food, releases juices from itself through digestion into the body in an unknown and incomprehensible way for humans. The course of action is unknown and incomprehensible; the consequences of the action, and therefore the action itself, are obvious. The effect of bread is similar to that of wine, which acts primarily on the blood. It separates from itself gases that change the state of the blood, through the blood they act on the soul, act on the mind, act on the heart. The effect of material bread and wine is material. Bread supports and strengthens the strength of the body; Wine, acting on the blood, stimulates activity in it, and helps bread in nourishing and strengthening the body. A body deprived of material food must, of necessity, become a victim of death. Spiritual bread - the body of Christ - strengthens the heart of a person, strengthens his whole being, strengthens the will, strengthens the mind, brings correctness to the desires and desires of the soul and body, frees the natural properties of people from ailments with which it was infected during the fall, which are called passions, that is, suffering, illnesses. Spiritual nourishment promotes spiritual nourishment. It imparts to the soul the quality of the properties of Christ. Christ took upon Himself all human properties, except sin; the properties of the human soul of Christ are alien to the damage of sin, immaculate; by reason of union with the Divine they are Divine. These deified properties infuse the soul of one who drinks the blood of Christ. “Like material wine,” said Saint Mark, “it dissolves in all the members of the drinker, and there is wine in him and he in wine; So he who drinks the blood of Christ is imbued with the Spirit of the Divine, dissolves in the perfect soul (Christ’s), and this soul in him, having thus been sanctified, is made worthy of the Lord” 85. He who withdraws from communion of the Holy Mysteries is alienated from Christ and left to himself, to his own nature, stricken by eternal death. Eternal death is destroyed in man, within him, in his mind and heart, by Christ alone. He enters as an omnipotent God into the inaccessible treasuries of man, and there he strikes death with death. If this is not done, eternal death will remain in man, will remain as the beginning and guarantee of eternal death. There is no way to avoid eternal death for those who have and keep within themselves the beginning and the guarantee of it - eternal death. ABOUT! how the invitation of the all-merciful Lord to partake of His all-holy body and blood and to be nourished by them becomes understandable and natural. This invitation is the most convincing, it is connected with great promises and with great threats. The Lord, out of His ineffable love for us, saved us with Himself, replacing our executions with His execution, replacing our defiled dignity with His most holy dignity; out of this same ineffable love, in the wonderful order and system established by this love, He calls us into the closest unity with Himself through communion of the Holy Mysteries, as the surest, as a necessary condition for our salvation. “Do not do the worthless thing that perishes,” He says, but the worthless thing that abides in eternal life, which the Son of man will give you (John 6:27). “My Father will give you the true bread from heaven. For it is the bread of God, come down from heaven and give life to the world” (John 6:32–33). “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48). “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread of this I will give, even my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). “For my flesh is truly meat, and my blood is truly beer” (John 6:55). “Amen, amen, I say to you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you” (John 6:53). Communion of the Holy Mysteries is established daily 86. Daily communion with the life of Christ should daily revive a Christian with spiritual life. “Frequent communion of life,” said Basil the Great, “what else does it mean if not frequent revival?” 87 Frequent communion - what else does it mean if not the renewal of the properties of the God-Man in oneself, if not the renewal of oneself with these properties? Renewal, constantly supported and nourished, is assimilated. From him and by him the decay acquired by the fall is destroyed; eternal death is conquered and put to death by the eternal life living in Christ, flowing from Christ; life - Christ is installed in man. The Holy Mysteries also have a special effect of the word of God, described by the holy Apostle Paul. It's natural! Just as Christ acts in the word of God, the Holy Spirit acts, Christ and the Holy Spirit act, assisting each other, acting from a single, equal and co-natural principle with Him - the Father, so They act in the Holy Mysteries. “The word of God lives,” declared the great Paul, “and is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating to the dividing of soul and spirit, members and marrow, and judging the mind and the thoughts of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The same should be said about the Holy Mysteries! “They enter into our essence,” says Saint John of Damascus, “to preserve and cleanse us from all filth, to ward off all harm from us. If they find counterfeit gold in us, then they cleanse it with the fire of judgment, so that we will not be condemned with the world in the next century: they cleanse it with illnesses and all sorts of disasters” 88 . He who partakes of the Holy Mysteries must know that, by accepting them, he “eats and drinks judgment for himself” (1 Cor. 11:29), as the apostle said. This court justifies those who lead a life pleasing to God, distributes, lavishes upon them spiritual rewards; he judges the errors of those whose pleasing to God is not enough, he heals the errors with temporary punishments to the aversion of the eternal; he strikes with executions, terrible executions, those who dare to approach the Holy Mysteries, leading an arbitrarily sinful life, contrary to the commandments of Christ. On this basis, the most thorough preparation is bequeathed to those who wish to begin the Holy Mysteries. “Let a man tempt himself,” says the apostle, “and let him eat of the bread, and let him drink of the cup” (1 Cor. 11:28). One must delve into self-contemplation, carefully examine, examine oneself; must cleanse oneself of sins, eradicate them from oneself through confession and repentance; we must correct even the subtlest deviations from the path of Christ’s commandments by returning to this path, establish in our souls the intention to adhere to this path with all our might, strengthen our intentions by reading, studying the Word of God, the warmest prayers, and frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries. We must consider insignificance, poverty, sinfulness, the fall of man, on the one hand, on the other - the greatness of God, the inexpressible goodness of the Savior, who gave up His body for us to be killed, for the shedding of His blood; the inexpressible love of the Savior, who feeds us with His flesh and blood, and with this nourishment brings us into the closest unity with Himself. From such examination and judgment of oneself there is contrition of the heart; a Christian is prepared for the worthy acceptance of the Holy Mysteries with a sincere consciousness of his unworthiness. This kind of self-examination is set forth by the holy fathers in their prayers for communion, with which the fathers help our dullness and bitterness, with which they clothe our souls, as in wedding garments, in the humility so beloved of our Savior. “He who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14), said the Savior, “and if he eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51). Worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries is possible only with a constantly pious life or after decisive repentance for a sinful life and decisive abandonment of it, witnessed and sealed by the offering of repentance according to the instructions of the Holy Church. An absent-minded, inattentive life, not illuminated and not guided by the word of God, directed according to the ideas of one’s own mind, according to the desires of sin-loving hearts and bodies, leaving a person with the vain name of a Christian, deprives him of a thorough knowledge of God and self-knowledge, deprives him of a proper understanding of the Holy Mysteries, deprives him of the appropriate preparation before accepting them, the appropriate mood and state during acceptance, the necessary storage of acceptance. “He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself, without considering the body of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:29), without giving it the due price, without preparing his vessel to receive the greatest, most holy treasure. The most saving treasure is at the same time the most terrible treasure due to its ineffable shrine. The judgment of God would not punish us if we spent an attentive life according to the commandments of Christ, carefully fulfilling them, carefully healing omissions in fulfillment through repentance. “Even if they had reasoned for themselves, they would not have been condemned” (1 Cor. 11:31). Frivolity and an insufficiently virtuous life are punished by the judgment of God, aroused by the unworthy acceptance of the Holy Mysteries, punished with mercy, punished by executions in time with the goal of salvation in eternity. “We are judged by the Lord and punished, lest we be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:32). Counting the executions to which the Corinthians were subjected for unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries with an insufficiently godly life, the apostle says: “for this reason, for the sake of the unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries, there are many infirmities and illnesses in you, and they sleep contentedly” (1 Cor. 11:30), i.e. a significant number die. The unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries has a different meaning during an arbitrarily and intentionally sinful life, when falling into mortal sins, during unbelief and evil faith. Those who receive communion in such a state commit a crime that entails no longer correctional executions, but decisive executions that entail eternal torment 89 . This crime is equal to the crime committed by the murderers of the God-man, 90 who showered Him with insults, struck Him on the cheeks, covered His face with spittle, and tormented His body with cruel beatings, nails, and crucifixion. “Whoever eats this bread,” said the great Paul, “or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27). “A certain aspiration of judgment is terrible, and the fire of jealousy is to destroy those who want to resist. Anyone who has rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy in the presence of two or three witnesses: because, remember, the worst one will be worthy of torment, having trampled upon the Son of God, and having taken the blood of the covenant filth, by it he was sanctified, and rebuked the Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:27-29). “Let a man tempt himself” (1 Cor. 11:28), let him consider himself before he approaches the Holy Mysteries - and, if he is mired in the filth of sin, let him avoid the terrible communion, so as not to commit and so as not to mark his sins with the most serious sin: desecration of the holy mysteries of Christ, desecration of Christ. Before boldly entering into marriage with the Son of God, let us take care of our spiritual robe: it is washed, cleansed from sinful stains, whatever these stains may be, by the ineffable mercy of the Lord during our repentance. The Monk Mark the Ascetic made the following remark: “Between the sowing and the harvest there is a certain space of time: for this reason we do not believe in reward” 91. Almost all those who partake unworthily are subjected to this kind of unbelief. Approaching the mysteries of Christ from the stench of sin, plunging into the stench of sin after accepting the mysteries, not seeing immediate punishment upon them, they believe that no punishment will ever follow. Wrong conclusion! A decisive execution was predicted for the Jews for deicide; but it followed several decades after the commission of a terrible crime. The inexpressible mercy and long-suffering of God still awaited their repentance. This mercy and long-suffering awaits our repentance. Execution is delayed and delayed, but it is sure to befall unrepentant, willful, stubborn sinners. We see its beginning most in sudden death or in death caused by such an illness that takes away the possibility of repentance. The execution itself is carried out in the afterlife. “Do not be flattered,” says the apostle, do not deceive yourself: God cannot be mocked: for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For whoever sows to his flesh, from the flesh he will reap corruption; but whoever sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit he will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7–8). The sacrament of the Eucharist 92 was established by the God-man today, after eating the representative Passover and the supper that followed it, before going into the suffering that saves us. The twelve apostles were present at the supper. Remembering and celebrating a great event, the Holy Church on Maundy Thursday gathers her children into her bosom for the Divine Liturgy, at noon, unusually, in the evening hours, so that the celebration of the sacrament and communion of the Holy Mysteries follows in those very hours in which the Lord performed the sacrament for the first time, proclaimed the invitation to nourish His Body and Blood. Thus, the great event, by the very setting of the memory of it, is vividly imprinted in our souls, and the commandment of the Lord “do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24) is fulfilled with particular accuracy. “The Lord,” says Saint Basil the Great, borrowing the story from the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Tradition, “even though He went forth to His free and ever-memorable and life-giving death, in the night, in nugity, He gave Himself for the life of the world, receiving bread in His holy and most pure hands, showing God and the Father, thanking, blessing, sanctifying, having broken, as His disciple and apostle, the river: “Take, eat: this is My body, which was broken for you” (1 Cor. 11:24, Matt. 26:26) for the remission of sins. Likewise, the cup of the fruit of the vine was received, dissolved, thanked, blessed, sanctified, given by His holy disciples and apostles, saying: “Drink of it, all of you, this is My blood of the new testament, which is poured out for you and “for many, for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:27–28) 93. This body and blood are the true Body and Blood of the God-Man, borrowed by Him from the Most Holy Virgin; this body and blood are Divine, as truly united with the Divine 94. “The body that has not ascended,” says Saint John of Damascus, “descends from heaven, and the very bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of God. If you ask how this is accomplished, then it is enough for you to hear that this is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord, from the Holy Mother of God, made flesh for Himself and in Himself by the Holy Spirit. We don’t know anything more; We only know that the word of God is true, effective and omnipotent. His manner of action is unsearchable" 95 . “Do this in remembrance of Me,” said the Savior of the world to His chosen disciples, secluded with them in the upper room for the Last Supper. And the commandment of the Lord is being fulfilled to this day in the universe, in all churches belonging to the Orthodox Church. What an almighty command! It was given to the twelve simplest fishermen and publicans, given at the humble, dying vespers, during which many bitter predictions were pronounced that had to be immediately fulfilled, given in the silence and darkness of the evening, in the solitude of the upper room, which formed the upper, separate part of the house - it acts throughout the entire earth, acts through centuries, through millennia. The Divine Liturgy throughout its entire duration, with all its rituals, represents a series and chain of memories of the Lord. The very preparation of bread and wine for consecration begins with this memory. Dressed in full vestments, the priest, before the start of the Divine Liturgy, performs proskomedia - this is the name for the offering of bread and wine and preparing them in the form that they must have for the celebration of the Liturgy. The priest takes the prosphora and, marking it with a copy of the sign of the cross three times, three times pronounces the words: “In remembrance of the Lord, and God, and our Savior Jesus Christ” 96 . In further actions, he says that the Lord “is led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb without blemish, without a voice even when shearing it, so He does not open His mouth” (Isa. 53:7) 97. Next, various events from the sufferings of the Lord are remembered. The prepared bread and wine, consecrated by the most holy memories, receive the meaning and name of the images of the Body and Blood of Christ 98. Then the Divine Liturgy begins. Upon the calling of the Holy Spirit by a bishop or priest and upon the consecration of the images, these images of the Body and Blood of Christ are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. During the celebration of the great sacrament, the song is sung: “We sing to You, we bless You, we thank You, and we pray to You, our God.” This song is a repetition of the blessing, thanksgiving, and praise pronounced by the Lord during the consecration and transubstantiation of bread and wine into His Body and Blood at the Last Supper. There is no room for other words during the celebration of the great sacrament. The mystery is incomprehensible, inexplicable. Before him, both the human mind and the angelic mind should be in awe, and out of abundant reverence they should remain silent. If words and voice are allowed, then they should express only thanksgiving and doxology, equivalent and equivalent to reverent silence. The preciousness of the gift, the holiness, the sublimity, the divinity of the gift can inexplicably be explained by thanksgiving and praise to God alone. The greatness of the sacrament places on us corresponding responsibilities. We must present not only our souls, but also our bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). “The body is the Lord’s, and the Lord is the body” (1 Cor. 6:13). “Your bodies are the delight of Christ” (1 Cor. 6:15), says the apostle. The purpose of man in soul and body is to be an abode for God (2 Cor. 6:16), a vessel of the Divine (1 Thess. 4:4). The soul must be tuned in accordance with this purpose, the body must be tuned. It is impossible, impossible to accept God into a soul that has borrowed its mood from Satan! It is impossible to receive God into a body that is dominated by impure lusts. Such acceptance is forbidden by God under terrible threats. Those who trample on God’s prohibition, those who trample on the greatness of God, those who trample on God Himself, commit a sin of immeasurable gravity. Let us free our body from fatness, from sinful lusts, aspirations, and hobbies. Let us cleanse the soul both from those passions that belong exclusively to it: anger, love of money, vanity and others like that, and from those that infect its body, such as gluttony and voluptuousness. Let us cleanse the spirit from its inherent filth, from false, blasphemous thoughts, from incorrect sensations, which constitute self-delusion, blindness, and eternal death. Our liberation is achieved through holy Truth (John 8:32). Our liberation and purification is achieved by abstinence from excess in food and drink, vigil, prayerful standing and kneeling, curbing the careless and curious: sight, touch, hearing and other bodily senses with which sin enters the soul and defiles both body and soul. Our liberation and cleansing is accomplished by the Word of God (1 Cor. 11:29). Let us nourish ourselves by reading the Word of God, let us revive ourselves, let us make the Word of God active, by acting according to the will and testament of the Lord, proclaimed to us by the Word of God. Let our memory often be renewed by pious reflection and contemplation of the suffering of our Savior, His death on the cross, by which we were redeemed from the old death, His earthly life is a constant expression of humility and love - spent among hardships, filled with sorrows. Let us make a firm intention to conduct our short earthly journey prudently and pleasing to God. Let us spend it in preparing ourselves for eternity, in preparing ourselves for the judgment of God. This requires careful vigilance over oneself, careful disposition of oneself according to the teachings of the Gospel, careful correction of omissions and deviations through repentance. Terrible is the rejoicing of the sons of the world, their incessant absent-mindedness and preoccupation with perishable things, their intoxication in the deception of the vain world. In this state there is a condition of death. Eternal death has already opened the dark, hellish mouth for its spontaneous victims, ready to devour and swallow them up at the first wave of God’s permission, after the passage of God’s long-suffering, awaiting the repentance of sinners, with God’s decisive retreat from unrepentant sinners. Let us be afraid of falling into a truly terrible state! Let us direct all our strength in time and in good time to our God, so that we may become assimilated to Him forever, and in assimilation to Him we may find our salvation and bliss in time and eternity. With such a life, when it is constant and thereby proves our loyalty to God, Divine grace overshadows us, strengthens our wavering feat, changes and regenerates it, grants us a new, strong, spiritual, heavenly feat - with this feat it leads us into quick and abundant prosperity. And with his own feat - and a person’s own feat, grace contributes, but without revealing itself - the servant of God, although he still struggles with passions, already partakes worthily of the Body and Blood of Christ, when he partakes of them in contrition of spirit and in the full consciousness of his unworthiness. The Body and Blood of Christ contribute to his feat, the feat of martyrdom: they cleanse and punish him according to their merciful Divine judgment, burning and destroying in him those filth that he cannot see or destroy on his own. After the ascetic is overshadowed by the grace of the Body and Blood of Christ, they revive him, awaken in him new, hitherto completely unknown to him, spiritual, higher understandings and sensations, reveal the Divine sacraments, fulfill the actions of the Holy Spirit, bring humility, incomparable in its depth and in the wonderful calm it produces with the humility brought by suffering under the yoke of passions and fallen spirits. “Be cleave to the Lord; you are one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). The Lord is Spirit, and the Lord unites a person who cleaves to the Lord with Himself, making him a spirit, despite the fact that this person remains in the body; This man becomes spiritual, borrowing spiritual properties from the Spirit of the Lord, and the bestial properties with which his fall infected him are separated and fall away from him, like a scab from a healed wound. Living according to the Gospel commandments, prayer in contrition of the spirit brings one into union with the Lord; This union is completed by Divine grace and the communion of the all-holy Divine body and blood of Christ. God fed his chosen people, the Israelites, with manna that fell from heaven, when this people traveled through the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land: “Give them manna to eat,” says the Scripture, “and give them the bread of heaven.” The bread of angels is man” (Ps. 77:24–25; John 6:32). This bread represented Christ, who feeds with His word (Matthew 4:4), with His Flesh and Blood, Christians wandering in the vale of exile, marching and ascending to the mountainous fatherland under various and numerous obstacles, sufferings, and disasters. Egypt marks the state of human fall, the state of enslavement to sin and fallen spirits. The exodus from Egypt depicts the rejection of a sinful life, the acceptance of faith in Christ, and the entry into living according to the commandments of Christ. The Promised Land is heaven; travel through the desert - earthly life; the bread of heaven is Christ. “For this is the bread of God, come down from heaven, and give life to the world” (John 6:33). “Your fathers,” Christ says to the new Israel about the old Israel, “ate manna in the desert and died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that if anyone eats from it, he will not die” (Jn. 6:49–50) by eternal death, neither during earthly life, nor after the separation of the soul from the body by the death of the body. Amen. Venerable Barsanuphius the Great. The answer is 401. Reverend Cassian. Interview 9, Ch. 21 Moral 46th in Discourses on the Evangelist John Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 68th St. John of Damascus. An accurate exposition of the Orthodox faith, book. 4, ch. 8 Borrowed from an Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, book. 4, ch. 13 An accurate exposition of the Orthodox faith, book. 4, ch. 13 Saint John Chrysostom, moral teaching 45 in a discourse on the Evangelist John Ladder. Word 25th. Here's the last one. words of St. John Climacus is somewhat supplemented. ascetic explanation Read before prayers for communion Alphabetical Patericon. In the prayer for the 19th kathisma it reads: “Satisfy my soul with Your honest blood from sorrow, and give the enemy to drink with it.” This idea is found in Saint John of Damascus See the reference of Saints Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos. Dobrot., part 2, ch. 92 New Tablet. Art. Holy gifts are offered according to the commandment Epistle 90 to noble Caesarea, book. 3 An Accurate Statement of the Orthodox Faith St. John of Damascus. An Accurate Statement of the Orthodox Faith Saint John Chrysostom. Moral 46th in the Discourses on John; An Accurate Statement of the Orthodox Faith On the Spiritual Law, ch. 118 Eucharist - thanksgiving. The sacrament is so named for the reason that it is performed with abundant thanksgiving and glorification of God Divine Liturgy of Basil the Great. Official of the bishop's ministry (church book) Borrowed from an Accurate Statement of the Orthodox Faith Liturgy of Basil the Great; St. John of Damascus. An accurate exposition of the Orthodox faith, book. 4, ch. 13 You might be interested in: