MAY 26, 2019 - "DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME"

As faithful Christians, we come to church every Lord’s Day to worship God during the Divine Liturgy. It is an important religious service because the Eucharist is confected during it. In a sense, the Liturgy is the Lord’s own services. At the Mystical Supper on the night before He died, Jesus took bread and wine, prayed over them, blessed them, pronounced them His body and blood, and then gave them to His apostles to eat. Then He instructed His followers: “DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.”

Early Christians did as the Lord had commanded. They met every first day of the week to worship, to pray, to hear God’s Word, to offer the bread and wine, have these consecrated by invoking the Holy Spirit and then partaking of Communion. In this way they both remembered and received Christ.

As parents, we guide out children to confess their sins to Christ in the presence of a Priest, who pronounces God’s absolution. We teach them to partake in the sacrament of Holy Communion. The word Communion means a common union of the most intimate kind, enjoyed by Christians with God and with others in the Church. The Priest stands at the Lord’s Table, chalice of wine and plate of bread before him, and after prayer and consecration we receive these as the body and blood of Christ.

But Communion does not end in church. We feel Christ’s presence in us, we sense His power in our wills, His peace in our lives. And others, too, seeing the joy of our souls, know we have been in the presence of God.