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Question:
I am a recent
Singaporean convert to Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism. I
notice that although Orthodox holds the same belief with
Catholics that the Eucharist is really the Body & Blood of
Christ, there is more veneration given to icons then to the Holy
Gifts. For example, why does Orthodox christians not adore the
Body & Blood of Christ? I asked my parish priest & he said that
the Eucharist is meant to seen in a context of a meal and there
is no need for veneration outside of the Liturgy.
I understand that even after the Liturgy, the consecrated Gifts
remains the Body & Blood of Christ. Is it all right for me, an
Orthodox to adore our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist?
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Answer:
Dr. Alexander Roman
alex@unicorne.org
You raise a very interesting question.
The adoration of Christ in Holy Communion is, first of all, something that
the Orthodox Church truly DOES participate in, but within the context of
the Divine Liturgy itself.
We adore Christ Who is truly Present on the Altar following the Epiclesis,
the culminating point that completes the Eucharistic Canon during which
bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord, God and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.
We bow down before the Incarnate Word of God and adore Him - absolutely!
We prepare zealously for the reception of Him in Holy Communion by fasting
and the long prayers of preparation, as you know, and of thanksgiving
afterward. Upon receiving our Saviour-God in Holy Communion, we kiss the
edge of the Chalice that represents the Wounded Side of Christ from which
flowed Blood and Water as we are nourished from that Same Side.
We are blessed by the priest or bishop with the Chalice, in other words,
with the Incarnate Son of God present in the Eucharist Himself immediately
following.
The entire Church, East and West, prior to the schism of 1054, and in the
West, even later, knew ONLY this form of adoration of Christ present in
the Holy Eucharist.
Later, as a kind of reaction against Protestantism and its denial of the
Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, there began the Western
practices of Eucharistic Adoration outside the Mass. Devotions included
placing the Reserved Eucharistic Host in a monstrance so that people could
"see the Lord Jesus" and also for purposes of Eucharistic processions.
Such processions in the West also developed from the Church processions
with the Holy Eucharist to the homes of very sick people so that the
priests might give them Holy Communion and prepare them for their meeting
with God after death.
In the West, people would decorate the path the procession would take with
flowers and ribbons, praying the entire way etc. Something similar occurs
in the East with certain Icons that are brought regularly to private homes
for veneration (e.g. the Icon of the Kyivan Caves Mother of God in
Bryanske).
The East sees the Holy Eucharist as a great Mystery and therefore "covers
up" what the West prefers to look at and "see."
The East has a more dynamic understanding of the Eucharist within the
context of the Liturgy and our union with the Holy Trinity through our
communion with the Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist.
In addition, with the use of Latin in the West, the laity tended to
develop their own devotions of a "paraliturgical" nature with prayers in
the language of the people etc. Some see the development of the
Eucharistic Monstrance precisely as a lay form of devotion.
This led to an entire category of Western lay services that were outside
the liturgical life of the Church. Vatican II tried to address the
problems that this developed as Catholic laity tended to emphasize private
prayers over and above liturgical prayer.
The Western "Supplication" Eucharistic service involves the blessing of
the people with the Host in a monstrance. As we have seen, the East has
ALWAYS had the blessing of the people with the Chalice immediately
following Holy Communion. Catholic liturgists, at one point, actually
tried to bring this blessing into the body of the Western Mass, but this
clashed with its liturgical structure.
However, with the coming of Greek Catholics into Orthodoxy in Eastern
Europe at various times, a number of Western practices, including the
paraliturgical adoration of the Holy Eucharist, came to be "tolerated" in
certain areas.
This was especially true in western Ukraine following 1946. In the
Orthodox Churches there, even to this day, one can find the Eucharistic
Supplication Services with the monstrance in certain Orthodox parishes,
the Stations of the Cross and even devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus
and Mary!
In the time of St Alexis Toth in the United States, converts to Orthodoxy
there were also allowed to keep their private Latin devotions and St
Alexis was very understanding in this regard - he being himself a convert
to Orthodoxy from the Greek Catholic Basilian Order!
All in all, the Orthodox Church does indeed adore Christ in Holy Communion
and the Divine Liturgy is the best context in which that is done.
You may adore Christ on the Altar any time you are in Church for any
service, or when you just come in to pray by yourself.
When we pray the Jesus Prayer, we also commune spiritually with Christ Who
enters our hearts and minds at that time by way of what the Fathers called
the "Epiclesis of Jesus Christ."
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