St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church
872 N. 29th St. Boise, ID
an American parish of the Russian Orthodox Church
Preparation for Holy Communion - St. Sebastian of Jackson, CA


“Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation unto himself.” (1 Cor. 11:28, 29)

These words of the Apostle are terrible, and so are they as the truth unfailing. Verily the judgement is heavy and the damnation is terrible for the one who receives the Body and Blood of Christ without due honor and without such a disposition of the spirit as is required. A terrible judgment has befallen that apostate people who sentenced our Lord Jesus Christ to be crucified, when they cried: “His blood be upon us and upon our children”. But that unfortunate people did not know the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, and committed that greatest crime in blindness and ignorance: for “had they known,” says St. Paul, “they should not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall be worthy of such a one, who has been born in Christianity, and was taught the Mysteries of the faith, and notwithstanding all this, hath by lightheartedness and carelessness – “trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace.”

Hence the reason why the Church with such care strives to prepare us for the reception of the life-giving Mysteries of Christ by fasting, prayer, and repentance. When the Cup is brought out, which we must approach in order to reanimate within us, renew and strengthen our covenant with Jesus Christ, we hear the last call of the Church which summons thus: “With faith and the fear of God draw near!” In those sacred moments, let be hushed within us all other thoughts, let be banished from our souls all other feelings, besides those unto which the Holy Church would elevate our spirits. Let us draw near with the fear of God, faith and love, that we may be partakers of life eternal.

That we may inspire within us that sacred fear, let us consider: Where are we now? Before whom do we stand? Unto what do we approach? Where are we? “Moses, Moses,” called God to His prophet, “put off thy shoes from thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground.” Since the place unto which God once descended has become sanctified, and to which the man who was called the friend of God could not approach without care, then how much holier is the place which is sanctified by such often repeated descendings of the Holy Spirit at the consecration of the terrible Mysteries upon which even the angels look with fear.

Before Whom do we stand? It is the God of unapproachable glory, from whose presence it was once that Mt. Sinai blazed and trembled; the God Almighty, who spoke and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast; He maketh to die and maketh to live; He lowereth to hell and raiseth up again; the God all-holy, Who bears not with iniquity and shuns unrighteousness; the Lord, a jealous God, who exacts of children the sins of fathers even unto the third and fourth generations. It is true that God appears to us here in His Body and Blood, without external grandeur and glory, without terrible manifestations; for, were it otherwise, we would say as the Israelites had said: “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

Unto what do we approach? To the Divine Body, which Simeon, the saintly old man, had once received in his hands with holy fear; to the Divine Body, by the touch of which the sick were healed, the lepers cleansed and which the demons feared; before the nakedness and wounds of which the sun darkened, the earth quaked, the rocks brake, to the most Glorious Body, which ascended into the heavens and upon which the Cherubim and Seraphim look with fear. True it is that it appears to us in the form of common food, but were it otherwise you would say with Peter: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” And so it is here we stand, such is the presence we stand before, and such is that unto which we approach. Great is the gift we receive from the hand of the Lord. Holy is His most pure Body, holy is His life-creating Blood, and therefore let us approach the Cup with greater care and more fear that we may not be scorched with its flame, that we may receive the flesh and blood of Christ not unto judgement and condemnation, but unto the cleansing, sanctification and enlivening of our nature decaying in sin. Amen.